Work on Online Labour Platforms: Does Formal Education Matter?

Rani, Uma; Dhir, Rishabh Kumar; Göbel, Nora

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-11462-5_3

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Research on platform work has indeed uncovered a variety of forms of proximate unpaid labour, relating to waiting time, task search time, dispute resolution time, breaks, sick leave and holiday leave, and travel time (between jobs), among others, each associated with different platform types (Berg et al, 2018;Pulignano and Mará, 2021;Rani et al, 2021). This suggests that unpaid labour interlocks with a variety of platform algorithmic systems of control over how workers build performance ratings and reputation (Gandini, 2019;Guest et al, 2022).…”

Section: Unpaid Labourmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unpaid labour is a major feature of digital labour platforms (Berg et al, 2018;Pulignano and Mará, 2021;Rani et al, 2021), also described as digital 'free labour' or 'ghost work' (Gray and Siddarth, 2019;Terranova, 2000). It exists in a proximate relationship with paid work (unlike unpaid domestic work or care work, for example) and is defined as unremunerated working time that contributes directly to the completion of platform tasks (D'Cruz and Noronha, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Why does unpaid labour vary among digital labour platforms? Exploring socio-technical platform regimes of worker autonomy

et al. 2023

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Digital platforms provide many workers with vital income and offer the promise of flexible work, and yet also contribute to experiences of precariousness and exploitation, particularly with regard to pressures to undertake unpaid work. This article explores why unpaid labour is necessary and what drives its extent and form among diverse types of digital platforms. We theorize two ideal types of ‘open’ and ‘closed’ socio-technical platform regimes of worker autonomy, building on sociological insights about socio-technical systems, management control over worker autonomy and labour market segmentation by skill. In principle, ‘open’ (‘closed’) platform regimes grant relatively high (low) worker autonomy in terms of access to the platform, paid work and control over work tasks. Analysing five case studies, illustrative of ‘open’ and ‘closed’ regimes, we investigate unpaid labour in low-skill locational (i.e. food delivery) platforms and medium/high-skill online (i.e. freelancing) platforms. In brief, digital freelancers exhibit a lower extent of unpaid labour within relatively ‘open’ regimes, owing to greater autonomy over access to, and control over, platform work in a sector requiring medium/high skills. Conversely, ‘closed’ regimes mitigate unpaid labour for food-delivery platforms by providing market shelter for workers, who are easily replaced in an overcrowded sector requiring few skills.

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