{"title":"2019冠状病毒病大流行期间的平台经济和外卖工作不稳定:来自印度的证据","authors":"Parwez, Ranjan","doi":"10.13169/workorgalaboglob.15.1.0011","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This study aims to explore work precarity in the platform economy from the perspective of food delivery workers. It also tries to contextualise work precarity in COVID-19 times. With the digital boom, food-based platform aggregators have emerged as a new workspace for food delivery workers in India. Food delivery workers working for platform aggregators are termed 'independent contractors' and 'delivery partners' to avoid legal issues of employer-employee relations;this enables a substantial reduction in transaction costs. Despite the huge number of food delivery workers, they are unable to organise into collectives. The platform economy is emerging as a sector offering new work opportunities, but at the same time it is plagued by low wages (and benefit), absence (or lack) of welfare measures, and digital controls contributing to the process of precarisation. The COVID-19 pandemic and resultant lockdown have aggravated the precarity of work for food delivery workers. It has led to the loss of jobs and incomes, and increased health risks, stigmas and occupation distress. Further, autonomy and flexibility should not come at the cost of the most basic social security and protection. This precarious situation calls for affirmative action from policymakers and platform aggregators.","PeriodicalId":52161,"journal":{"name":"Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation","volume":"101 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"15","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"The platform economy and the precarisation of food delivery work in the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from India\",\"authors\":\"Parwez, Ranjan\",\"doi\":\"10.13169/workorgalaboglob.15.1.0011\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"This study aims to explore work precarity in the platform economy from the perspective of food delivery workers. It also tries to contextualise work precarity in COVID-19 times. With the digital boom, food-based platform aggregators have emerged as a new workspace for food delivery workers in India. Food delivery workers working for platform aggregators are termed 'independent contractors' and 'delivery partners' to avoid legal issues of employer-employee relations;this enables a substantial reduction in transaction costs. Despite the huge number of food delivery workers, they are unable to organise into collectives. The platform economy is emerging as a sector offering new work opportunities, but at the same time it is plagued by low wages (and benefit), absence (or lack) of welfare measures, and digital controls contributing to the process of precarisation. The COVID-19 pandemic and resultant lockdown have aggravated the precarity of work for food delivery workers. It has led to the loss of jobs and incomes, and increased health risks, stigmas and occupation distress. Further, autonomy and flexibility should not come at the cost of the most basic social security and protection. This precarious situation calls for affirmative action from policymakers and platform aggregators.\",\"PeriodicalId\":52161,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation\",\"volume\":\"101 1\",\"pages\":\"\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.0000,\"publicationDate\":\"2021-01-01\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"15\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.15.1.0011\",\"RegionNum\":0,\"RegionCategory\":null,\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q2\",\"JCRName\":\"Business, Management and Accounting\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.15.1.0011","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Business, Management and Accounting","Score":null,"Total":0}
The platform economy and the precarisation of food delivery work in the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from India
This study aims to explore work precarity in the platform economy from the perspective of food delivery workers. It also tries to contextualise work precarity in COVID-19 times. With the digital boom, food-based platform aggregators have emerged as a new workspace for food delivery workers in India. Food delivery workers working for platform aggregators are termed 'independent contractors' and 'delivery partners' to avoid legal issues of employer-employee relations;this enables a substantial reduction in transaction costs. Despite the huge number of food delivery workers, they are unable to organise into collectives. The platform economy is emerging as a sector offering new work opportunities, but at the same time it is plagued by low wages (and benefit), absence (or lack) of welfare measures, and digital controls contributing to the process of precarisation. The COVID-19 pandemic and resultant lockdown have aggravated the precarity of work for food delivery workers. It has led to the loss of jobs and incomes, and increased health risks, stigmas and occupation distress. Further, autonomy and flexibility should not come at the cost of the most basic social security and protection. This precarious situation calls for affirmative action from policymakers and platform aggregators.
期刊介绍:
Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation aims to: -Provide a single home for articles which specifically address issues relating to the changing international division of labour and the restructuring of work in a global knowledge-based economy. -Bring together the results of empirical research, both qualitative and quantitative, with theoretical analyses in order to inform the development of new interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the restructuring of work, organisational structures and labour in a global context. -Be global in scope, with a particular emphasis on attracting contributions from developing countries as well as from Europe, North America and other developed regions. -Encourage a dialogue between university-based researchers and their counterparts in international and national government agencies, independent research institutes, trade unions and civil society as well as other policy makers. Subject to the requirements of scholarly peer review, it is open to submissions from contributors working outside the academic sphere and encourages an accessible style of writing in order to facilitate this goal. -Complement, rather than compete with, existing discipline-based journals. -Bring to the attention of English-speaking readers relevant articles originally published in other languages.