The gig economy continues to disrupt different traditional markets such as transport, accommodation, and domestic work in the global South. The gig economy offers flexibility, autonomy and higher earning potential for gig workers. However, it is not without its challenges such as precarious working arrangements, occupational hazards and employment uncertainty. This study explores key survival strategies employed by domestic workers offering their services through one of South Africa's prominent gig platforms that specializes in domestic work. The study used semi-structured interviews with questions based on an adapted conceptual framework based on Folkman's cognitive theory of stress and coping. Three main categories of challenges face domestic workers in the gig economy: application induced technology challenges such as platform usability; occupation-specific challenges such as exposure to dangerous and unhealthy environments; and gig work induced service perceptions such as unrealistic expectations. These challenges result in negative consequences such as personal trauma, exhaustion and financial loss. Workers report feeling exploited and unsure about their relationship with the platform. The workers adopt various problem-focused, emotion-focused, support-seeking, and meaning-making survival strategies that include avoiding bookings by previously problematic customers, negotiating alternative terms with customers outside of the app, enduring traumatic experiences and complying with unreasonable demands. Platforms should consider financial and relationship transparency in their relationship with gig workers as well as affording gig workers more choice and flexibility regarding client bookings.
Fast growth of the gig economy in the global South has brought with it both hopes and concerns about this new form of digitally-enabled employment. Relatively little work has so far looked at the risks of such work; risks shaped by the particular context of developing countries. This paper undertakes an inductive, interpretive study of risks endured and risk-mitigation strategies adopted by ride-hailing drivers in Cape Town, South Africa, drawing from the perspective of ride-hailing drivers working for Uber and Bolt in Cape Town. A thematic analysis of eighteen (n = 18) semi-structured interview data shows three main perceived risks; inadequate income, personal safety, and deactivation from the platform. The severity of these risks means most drivers seek to mitigate them and we identify three types of mitigation strategy; initiated by the platforms (e.g. panic buttons), by the drivers individually (e.g. techniques for handling risky riders or locations), or by driver groups (e.g. rotating savings schemes). Platform design and business decisions mean it is individual workers who bear the majority of risks and individual workers who have to take responsibility for the majority of riskmitigation strategies. Based on these new insights into digitally-enabled work, we suggest some directions for improved risk mitigation and for future research.
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