Platformisation of work : challenges beyond employment classification

Abstract

Platform work has been among the most researched themes in labour law for approximately eight years now. Globally, the vast bulk of this exponentially growing academic, judicial, and regulatory debate has centred on the employment classification of platform workers. After initial bewilderment and with mixed success, platform workers have been embedded within the standard labour law categories. This thesis is based upon the empirically grounded premise that the dominant approach to improving working conditions of platform workers, i.e., their categorisation as platforms’ employees, is a valid solution only for a fraction of workers operating through transport and delivery platforms. The ‘Uberisation’ of the debate and the overemphasis on the classification puzzle obscure other formidable dogmatic and normative challenges posed by the platform economy. This thesis addresses three such issues that have so far largely escaped legal scholars’ attention. Firstly, it positions platform work within the context of conventional categories of labour market intermediation, showing that it often falls into the grey zone between mere intermediaries and temporary work agencies. Secondly, it examines crowdwork through the lens of global supply chains, arguing for a stronger transnational labour regulation in both cases. Thirdly, it posits that platformisation undermines the genuine autonomy of freelancers as it fundamentally reshapes the labour process and distorts the traditional dynamics between freelancers and their clients. These three issues show that platform work is not only about a sheer regulatory evasion but that it also gives rise to genuine legal ambiguities that cannot be easily accommodated within the existing regulatory paradigms. By examining these under-studied dimensions of platform work, the thesis provides a timely contribution to the ongoing debate on the regulation of platform work. It advocates for alternative models of assigning platforms’ accountability for labour standards irrespective of the employment status of platform workers.