The Gig Economy Project started with the Brave New Europe website getting a €2,000 grant in April 2020, with the aim of doing a bit of journalism about the gig economy in the context of the pandemic and trying to engage workers in the process. We didn’t think it would go much beyond that initial grant. But as we got more into the topic and we started developing a community around the project, we decided that we were building something that wouldn’t exist otherwise and was worth trying to keep alive. One grant rolled into another, and then another, and then another, and then one more, and somehow we’ve managed to get four years down the road, still going, always stuck together with glue and sticky tape. Until now. By 1 July 2024, which is tomorrow, we will for the first time since April 2020 be officially without funding. We do still have one out-standing grant fund bid which we are still waiting to hear back from. If we were to get that grant we would restart the project again, although it would probably look quite different than it does right now. We retain open the option of trying to restart the project again in the future if we believe a new need emerges for it or a new opportunity. We would also consider new collaborations which could broaden the scope or scale of what we’ve done up to this point.But for now, this is it. GEP’s archive will remain, so you can still access our back catalogues of newsletters, articles and podcasts. We’ll maintain the social media accounts and this newsletter account in case we do restart or if something especially important comes up that we want to highlight. We are pleased to have finished on the ‘A Rebel’s Guide to the Gig Economy’ podcast series, which brings together just about everything we’ve learned about the gig economy over the past four years into a fairly compact 11 episodes, most of which are 11 minutes long. We published the final episode yesterday and you can access all of the episodes here, as well as a transcript of the series.All that’s left is to give a big thanks to the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have contributed to GEP over the past four years. We’ve only ever had one, part-time, member of staff, so the project would not have been able to do a fraction of what it has without the good-will and enthusiasm of many people since 2020, especially gig workers, who have been unfailingly generous with their time and energy. A big thanks to the Brave New Europe editors David Sherriff and Mathew D. Rose who have been constantly supportive and positive about the work of GEP. And a special thanks to Piero Valmassoi and Marini Thorne, two volunteers who have gone above and beyond to help us produce quality content. The struggle for decent, secure and dignified platform work goes on. Over and out - for now!
Ben Wray, Gig Economy Project co-ordinator
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Gig Economy news round-up |
- HUNGER STRIKE OF UNDOCUMENTED JUST EAT RIDERS IN PARIS AGAINST SACKING: Three undocumented riders who are Just Eat employees in Paris were on hunger strike this week over the company's plans to make them redundant. The food delivery couriers are among about 100 who are set to be fired by the company, which announced in January that it planned to move back to a self-employed model in the French capital, as it has already done for the rest of the country. Around 10 of the 100 riders are undocumented, and they say their ability to be regularised in France is tied to their employment status. They say that the management had promised to keep them on for another 11 months until their regularisation would be complete, but that management reneged on that promise last Friday, when talks broke down between the Force Ouvriere (FO) union and management, leading to the hunger strike. The company had signed a deal with FO in 2022 promising no more redundancies until at least December 2024. A press release by the FO union on Monday said one of the hunger strikers had collapsed three days into the action. "It's all the employees in an irregular situation who have felt thrown into a precarious situation," Jeremy Graça, an FO delegate and Just Eat rider, said in the press statement. Graça said the company threatened to call the police in response to the hunger strike, which is taking place in Just Eat's French headquarters. The hunger strikers were supported by Ben Ali-Brahim, leader of the INV union which organises Uber drivers, who came to speak to the workers on Wednesday and was involved in a conflict with Just Eat security, which led Just Eat to close operations for the day. In protest at the job cuts, the riders organised an international protest at Just Eat's headquarters in Amsterdam in April. Read more here.
- WORKER INFO EXCHANGE LAUNCH UK ELECTION MANIFESTO TO 'FIX THE GIG ECONOMY': The data workers' rights advocacy organisation Worker Info Exchange has put forward a 10-point plan to fix the UK's gig economy on the eve of the country's General Election. The 10-point plan includes a call for a single worker status, to end the 'limb (b)' third status which Uber drivers are currently employed on and gives them some, but not all, workers' rights. Labour had committed to a single-worker status in 2021 before walking back on the pledge shortly before the 4 July election was announced. Other points include bringing an end to "algorithmic wage discrimination" by banning the use of dynamic pricing for workers' pay, and paying workers for all their time at work, including waiting time. Uber drivers in the UK are currently not paid for waiting time despite a UK Supreme Court verdict in 2021 stating that they should be. James Farrar, Director of Worker Info Exchange, stated: "There can be no more dither and delay, Labour must deliver on its longstanding promises to help gig workers. We are demanding that all candidates running for election commit themselves to delivering on our ten-point plan.” The 10-point plan was backed by the ADCU union, with Zamir Dreni, Chair of ADCU, stating: "We will be asking our members to support this campaign and we are determined to pressure the next government to act to protect gig workers.” Read more here.
- UNIONS STILL LACK STRATEGIES FOR PLATFORM CARE WORKERS, REPORT FINDS: A new study on care platforms in Europe has found that unions don't yet have a clear strategy to engage with this section of the gig economy. The report by academics Caroline Murphy, Ivana Pais and Tish Gibbons for Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung and the European Federation of Public Service Unions looked specifically at how unions can help address the challenges which platform care workers face. They found that the privatisation of care across the continent had opened up opportunities for more private actors, including platforms, to fill the gap, with their growth directly linked to a crisis of affordability for clients in accessing care at home, as well as the increasing primacy of care at home over institutional care. Working conditions were broadly similar between care workers hired via platforms and those hired via traditional companies, with little improvement in recent years. Unions have traditionally struggled to organise domestic workers, who are not easily visible and are often disconnected from one another. That's not changed so far with the arrival of platforms to this sector, as "unions have not yet developed clear strategies" on how to be visible to and interact with platform care workers. The report found that there was opportunities to do this, especially in the digital sphere, as many platform care workers congregate together in social media groups. The report was launched at an online event on Monday [24 June]. Read the report here.
- GETIR BROKEN UP AS MANAGEMENT CRISIS ENDS: Turkish grocery delivery platform Getir is being broken-up into two companies. The re-structuring sees the company's largest investor, Abu Dhabi investment fund Mubadala, inject $250 million into Getir and take majority control of the company. Getir's Turkish grocery delivery operations will remain one company whilst the rest of it's assets, including US grocery delivery service FreshDirect, will be siphoned-off into a separate firm. The deal brings an end to the management crisis at the company which saw Mubadala lock horns with Getir's founder, Nazim Salur, who was CEO before this re-structuring and will now be a minority investor and board member. At the start of June, Mubadala demanded Salur stand-down or the company would not receive the new cash injection, which was necessary to remain liquid into July. Long-time manager Batuhan Gultakan will now lead the firm. Getir exited all of its remaining foreign markets in May as the company was bleeding €100 million a month in cash burn. Just last year it was the dominant force in European grocery delivery, and had a valuation of $12 billion in 2022, but has declined sharply along with the rest of the Q-Commerce sector as demand has slowed after the pandemic and costs have spiralled with rising interest rates. Read more here.
- DOORDASH TRIED TO BUY DELIVEROO: US food delivery giant DoorDash made a bid to buy British-owned Deliveroo last month, Reuters has revealed. The takeover bid broke down due to differences in valuation, but is unlikely to be the company's last attempt to buy Deliveroo, which operates in the UK, France, Ireland, Belgium and Qatar. Deliveroo's share price jumped 5 points on news of the takeover bid on Wednesday [26 June]. The company floated on the UK stock market in 2021 at a valuation well below Deliveroo's valuation, in what was considered a blow to the reputation of the London Stock Exchange. Deliveroo's biggest shareholder is tech giant Amazon, which holds 13.23% of the stock. DoorDash bought Finnish-founded platform Wolt at the end of 2021, and its Founder Tony Xu told the Financial Times in January that it is looking at ways to expand beyond its core market in the US. Giles Thorne, analyst at Jeffries, told the Financial Times that market consolidation was being driven by a huge gap in stock market valuations between the US and Europe, with DoorDash shares trading at 17 times ebitda ('earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation'), compared to eight times for Deliveroo. Read more here.
Have we missed something important? You can help keep us informed about what's going in the gig economy in Europe by e-mailing GEP@BraveNewEurope.com. |
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Why should gig workers join a union?In Episode 10 of A Rebel's Guide to the Gig Economy, Ben and Marini look at the potential power gig workers have if they join together in a union.
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Designing gig worker sousveillance tools
Paper by Kimberly Do, Maya De Los Santos, Michael Muller and Saiph Savage on how gig workers can turn the tables on platforms and monitor those in positions of authority, what is called 'sousveillance'.
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- The ILO will hold a hybrid event on 'Negotiating the algorithm: artificial intelligence and algorithmic management at work' in Zurich on 3 July at 3pm CET. For full details and to register for the online event, click here.- The Centre for Interdisciplinary Labour Law Studies will host an event on 'Carrying the Load: Feminist Activism in Platform Work' on 4 July, 6.30pm at Lenaustraße 3, 10047, Berlin. Click here for full details.- The academic project on platform work COST P-WILL will hold a scientific conference on 'Gendering Platforms: Law, Regulations and Alternatives', in Paris on 27 September. Click here for details.
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The Gig Economy Project is a media network for gig workers and we welcome contributions from workers, writers, academics, activists - anyone who wants to stand up for workers' rights in the gig economy.
If you would like to write for the site, discuss arranging an interview with GEP, or simply have information about developments in the gig economy in Europe you think we should be aware of, get in touch.
Contact project co-ordinator Ben Wray at GEP@BraveNewEurope.com or send a direct message to the Twitter: @project_gig.
And if you like the Gig Economy Project weekly newsletter, why not get your friends and colleagues to subscribe? Here's the link.
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