We have long argued in this newsletter that to understand the gig economy in Europe it is necessary to grasp that a large section of the workforce are migrants. In a European economy where first and second generation migrants face systematic discrimination and marginalisation, gig work is attractive because of its low barriers to entry: you don't need to do a job interview, you don't need to have a strong grasp of the native language, and you don't need qualifications.However, neither do you stop being marginalised when you enter the gig economy. Most migrants pick up this work with the intention of it being transitory, a stepping stone to moving onto what they hope are bigger and better things, but they often find themselves locked-in to gig work due to the long hours required, the difficulties in navigating a financially precarious existence and the hurdles to accessing promising alternatives. As researcher Niels Van Doorn has found, the gig economy can be both a "stopgap" and "a trap" for migrants.But to what extent exactly is the gig economy made up of a migrant workforce? A study published by European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) researchers Wouter Zwysen and Agnieszka Piasna this week helps us go beyond impressionistic observations about gig work and migrants, offering up some hard data. The authors use a 2021 IPSOS survey on platform work in 14 European countries based on random digit dialling as the basis for their evidence.This survey was not designed specifically for the purposes of this study and the authors acknowledge that the data is probably a significant under-estimation of the number of migrants in the platform economy, because migrants are likely to be less inclined to respond to such a survey method and undocumented migrants (for which there are many in the platform economy, especially in the food delivery sector) are unlikely to be included in the survey data at all. With these caveats accounted for, what does the study find? Third country migrants (those who are not native or from another EU country) are about twice as likely to be platform workers in food delivery and ridehail as EU-born workers, relative to their total population size. The same is not true for remote clickwork (like Amazon Mechanical Turk) or remote professional work (like online translation), where the numbers are similar regardless of origin. Across the gig economy as a whole, third country migrants are about 20% more likely to be platform workers, which makes them a substantial minority of total platform workers.Migrants with tertiary education are the main driver of this overrepresentation, indicating a high number of migrant workers who struggle to find work in Europe which matches their qualification level (some will be doing gig work whilst studying, including on student visas). Migrants are also significantly more likely to do platform work as their main job, while many EU-born workers use gig work as a side hustle. This finding corresponds with anecdotal evidence in a sector like food delivery, where migrants may not make up a majority of all riders, but almost certainly carry-out a majority of food deliveries due to the long hours they spend working. The authors conclude, firstly, that "platform work is not 'migrant work'" as "the vast majority of the platform workforce in
our data is still native-born". Secondly, the prevalence of migrants in the gig economy "appears
to be a symptom of labour market integration problems for migrants who
are unable to find suitable jobs in the traditional economy."How to apply these lessons to the recently agreed EU Platform Work Directive? One of the concerns academics and others have expressed about employment status in the gig economy is the risk of entrenching the exclusion of migrants, especially those with shaky citizenship status, from the labour market. The question of migrants' labour status was not in the scope of the Directive, but it will have a significant influence on the real world effects of this legislation after it is transposed into national law. Contributing to a series of articles published on Europe's platform economy this week by Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung (which the Gig Economy Project has also contributed to), researcher Padmini Sharma offers a positive appraisal of the role that new rights in relation to algorithmic management could play in reducing the fear migrant gig workers have that they will be deactivated from the app for participating in protests and strikes. "As the directive affirms the workers’ right to request review or challenge such automated decisions, it has the potential to catalyse a significant shift in the collective organising efforts among migrant workers," Sharma writes.In a politically hostile climate towards migrants across the continent, few will be looking to new laws from the state as their salvation. But for those who want to defend an anti-racist politics and build worker unity within the gig economy, pushing for equal rights for all workers regardless of where they are from is a necessity. First and foremost, that means advocating for the regularisation of undocumented gig workers. Not only will that strengthen the ability and confidence of all platform workers to organise, it will also reduce the blockages migrant gig workers have from entering other parts of the labour market, ensuring they don't get trapped in the harsh precarity which is gig work.Ben Wray, Gig Economy Project co-ordinator
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Gig Economy news round-up |
- FRENCH JUST EAT RIDERS TO TRAVEL TO AMSTERDAM TO PROTEST AT HQ: Just Eat food delivery couriers facing redundancy in France are set to go to Amsterdam next Tuesday [2 April] in an attempt to express their discontent directly to the company's CEO, Jitse Groen. Just Eat, the largest food delivery platform in Europe, announced in January that it would no longer operate an in-house delivery service in Paris, which employs riders directly, after ending this service in most of the rest of France in 2022. Instead operations will be run by a sub-contractor, Stuart Delivery. In announcing the move, Groen said that Just Eat's employment model could not compete with rivals who hire their riders on a self-employed basis at lower labour costs, adding that it was "a shame" that France was standing in the way of the EU Platform Work Directive. However, the Platform Work Directive, which will establish a legal presumption of employment, was finally agreed earlier this month, a decision which Groen has welcomed, but it has not so far led to a re-think about its operations in France. "We've always been told that the problem in France is that other platforms don't pay their drivers," Force Ouvrière (FO) union delegate Anthony Almeida said. "Now everyone is going to have to comply with the European law, and Just Eat has chosen precisely this moment to leave France. We just don't get it." The FO has organised the riders' delegation to travel to Amsterdam, where Just Eat's headquarters is based, because the French management have told them "that the Dutch managers are in charge," according to their lawyer Maitre Philippe Pradal. "We now need to meet with the real decision-makers to ensure that Just Eat workers are treated fairly," she added. The delegation will be welcomed by their Dutch counterparts in the FNV union. A parallel mobilisation will take in place in Paris.
- UBER EATS RIDER RECEIVES PAY-OUT OVER "RACIALLY DISCRIMINATORY" FACIAL ID CHECKS: A food delivery courier in the UK agreed to an out-of-court settlement with Uber Eats over the platform's "racially discriminatory" facial ID checks. Pa Edrissa Manjang took Uber Eats to court after he was discontinued from the app for "continued mismatches" in relation to his facial ID checks. Manjang's case was funded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the ADCU union. Uber Eats has been long-criticised for using a Microsoft software for facial ID checks which Microsoft itself has admitted does not work as well on ethnic minorities. Manjang, who was reinstated and still works as an Uber Eats rider in Oxfordshire, said he hoped the case "shines a spotlight" on the issues workers face with facial ID checks and that it would strengthen "rights and protections of workers in relation to AI, particularly ethnic minorities". ADCU said it was "working hard" to address these issues as "the pace of development of AI and machine-learning tools in the workplace accelerates". Read more here.
- MAN WHO STABBED DELIVEROO RIDER SENTENCED TO 6 AND A HALF YEARS IN JAIL: Lewis Livingstone, who stabbed a Deliveroo rider in an attempted robbery, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison on Thursday [28 March]. The victim was not working at the time of the attack but was on his bike in Enfield, north London. CCTV footage showed he was kicked and pushed off the bike by Livingstone, who then threatened him with a large knife. The victim then lunged at Livingstone in an attempt to retrieve the bike, and while they were on the floor Livingstone stabbed him in the abdomen. Some members of the public then intervened to pull Livingstone off the rider. A victim impact statement said: "I believe this man was going to kill me, had the people not come to my rescue. I am still not over the shock and fear. I spent the night in hospital having nightmares. I still have a lot of pain on my side and hands as a result of being stabbed. I am now in the queue waiting for surgery on my hands." The attack on the rider is by no means the first in the UK, with the IWGB union previously calling for delivery platforms to establish proper safety protocols for their workers. Read more here.
- EUROPEAN TRADE UNION LEADER CALLS FOR EXPERT GROUP ON TRANSPOSITION OF PLATFORM WORK DIRECTIVE: Trade unions will push for an expert group to be assembled to support the transposition of the EU Platform Work Directive (PWD) into national law. Ludovic Voet, confederal secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), made the announcement in an article for 'Social Europe' on the PWD, which was agreed by member-states on 11 March and is set to be ratified by the European Parliament on 24 April, at which point member-states will have two years for transposition. Voet argued that the difficult process for passing the PWD showed that "platforms wield considerable influence, adeptly lobbying at state and EU levels, and they are likely to exploit any loopholes in transposition". He said that a "tripartite body including the European social partners" could help "counter" the lobbying influence of the platforms by "delineating clear boundaries to safeguard workers’ rights". The final agreed text of the Platform Work Directive was a compromise which gave individual member-states considerable latitude to design their own legal presumption of employment. Voet also called on the European Commission to establish a "platform for member states willing to navigate collaboratively the transposition and implementation process". The ETUC Confederal Secretary also hoped that the passing of the PWD would lead more platforms to be willing to negotiate collective agreements directly with unions, stating it was "high time to sit down at the negotiating table - employers and trade unions together". Read more here.
- BILBAO UBER DRIVERS TO STRIKE FOR THREE DAYS: Uber drivers in the Basque city of Bilbao will take three days of strike action from 2-4 April, as no new collective agreement has been found after the previous one expired on 31 December. Private hire (VTC) drivers in Spain are employed via intermediary firms, and in the Basque region of Vizcaya, which Bilbao is the capital of, they are hired via Ares Capital, the largest in Spain. The union, ELA, said that the "negotiation is blocked" as they had encountered the company's refusal "again and again" to ensure that "minimums are respected". A rally will take place on Tuesday [2 April] at 85 Gran Vía Street in support of the striking drivers.
Have we missed something important? You can help keep us informed by sending information to GEP@BraveNewEurope.com. |
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Humanisingfood delivery workin AustraliaResearch by Tyler Riordan, Richard N.S. Robinson and Gerhard Hoffstaedter on the experience of temporary
migrants who do food delivery in South East Queensland, Australia.
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- On 4-5 April, a conference at Toulouse University will be held on 'Micro-work, platforms and employment: Multidisciplinary analysis and international and comparative approach', marking the end of the ANR TraPlaNum project. The event will also be available on Zoom (in French). Click here for the full programme and to register.- The European Parliament votes on the Platform Work Directive on 24 April, in Strasbourg, France.
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There will be no Gig Economy Project weekly newsletter next week as we take a short holiday. The newsletter will be back on 14 April.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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