Mercados de trabajo digitales en la economía de plataformas

The so-called “sharing economy” is a much-debated topic. Uber, Airbnb, Helpling and many other platform-based business models want to “disrupt” industries that they portray as “ossified” and user-unfriendly. The contenders claim to create new services that are more flexible and cost-efficient. And indeed, the new platforms, which serve as an intermediary between supply and demand, have many valuable contributions to offer. Nevertheless, the new platforms are increasingly beset by criticism. Usually they rely on a workforce of independent contractors, who work on their own account and at their own risk, for low wages and without social security. Neither the platform providers nor their clients take on the role and responsibilities of an employer. Labour laws, worker protection, health and safety regulations, quality of work and social security contributions mostly fall to the responsibility of the independent contractors alone, who are also not entitled to the kind of workers’ participation common in other sectors. The clients of the platforms essentially gain access to an on-demand workforce, while the independent contractors who provide the labour are subject to precarious working conditions. Against this background, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) decided to have a closer look at platform-based digital business models and their implications for the economy and for society. While digital platforms have come to play a role in many branches of the economy, the present publication is focussed on the socio-politically most contested ones, namely digital labour platforms. The study explains the basic mechanisms of three-sided digital labour markets and compares its variants and subcategories. It also explains the specific features and challenges of the different categories and pro-poses starting points for political measures.