Essential or excluded? Union pressures and state responses to platform work in three liberal market economies

James Duggan, Michelle O’Sullivan and Maeve O’Sullivan
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James Duggan: Cork University Business School, University College Cork, Ireland
Michelle O’Sullivan: Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick, Ireland
Maeve O’Sullivan: J.E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics, University of Galway, Ireland

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 2023, vol. 29, issue 4, 491-505

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic led to renewed discussion of decent work for people at the margins of the labour market. This article explores public policy on platform workers across three liberal market economies, namely the United Kingdom, Canada and Ireland, taking the pandemic as a focal point. Liberal market economies are generally difficult environments for unions, and we examine the nature of union political pressure on the state to enhance protections for platform workers and the extent to which policy has changed in each state. We find uneven levels of such union pressure, with the most limited attention afforded by Irish unions. In the United Kingdom, the unions did exert some influence through strategic litigation, creating a policy problem for the government. More progressive policies are evident in Canada, where the government recognises that platform workers’ precarious position has undesirable consequences for the state.

Keywords: Platform work; gig economy; political pressure; public policy; COVID-19 pandemic; decent work; unions; social protection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:treure:v:29:y:2023:i:4:p:491-505

DOI: 10.1177/10242589241231731

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