The platform economy at the forefront of a changing world of work: Implications for occupational health and safety

Pierre Bérastégui and Sacha Garben

Chapter 6 in A Modern Guide To Labour and the Platform Economy, 2021, pp 96-111 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: At first glance, working conditions in the platform economy may be regarded as 'atypical' due to the innovative technology involved. When subjected to closer scrutiny, however, it appears that the structural characteristics of platform-mediated work are not entirely new but rather constitute radical extensions of pre-existing trends: greater control and surveillance; greater job uncertainty and volatility; and greater worker isolation and workplace fragmentation. It has long been acknowledged that these trends have the potential to give rise to multiple risk factors, ultimately affecting occupational health and safety. Nevertheless, the extent to which platforms have built their entire business model around these dimensions, and with the aid of technologies which compound the resulting precarity, has lifted the overall set of problems to a higher level. In this chapter, we analyse how these three trends translate to the platform economy and the risks they entail for platform workers' health and safety.

Keywords: Business and Management; Economics and Finance; Innovations and Technology; Sociology and Social Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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