The article examines the effects of the normalization of a new form of precarious work—tied to the gig economy and shaped by the imperatives of neoliberalism—in impeding the formation of solidarity that would enable workers to challenge structural issues that shape their precarity, although without entirely preventing collective organization. While the article focuses on the manifestation of the new precarity and workers’ responses in the app-based transport service in Indonesia, it seeks insights from the different experiences of other countries. It is argued here that the historical absence of the Standard Employment Relationship (SER), and the historically rooted ineffectiveness of labor and broader society movements aggravate problems in translating the precarity discourse into the organizational struggles of contemporary labor.
Ride-hailing services have flooded the urban transportation market in Indonesia, the strongest market in South East Asia today, offering a wide array of services from transportation to groceries shopping. Go-Jek and Grab, the two biggest start-ups in the region, are estimated to each recruit around one-million drivers throughout the country. They have been joined by other players, including Blu-Jek, Lady-Jek, Bitcar and Anterin, although many have ceased to operate amid heated competition. They are parts of the emerging 'gig economy'-new businesses that rely on a flexible workforce that deliver various services via digital platforms. Workers engage with precarious work-insecure, uncertain, and unstable employment practices, associated with the transfer of most risks from business and the government to workers. Here, the use of digital apps to connect workers and consumers and to supervise work performance makes employer-employee relationships rather ambiguous, depriving workers of fundamental rights at work. Recent scholarship has attempted to predict the impact of rising precarious work on the future of labour politics. The most prominent is Guy Standing who views
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