From Flexible to Liquid: Working in the Platform Economy
The historical social model of most industrialized countries was built on solid foundations, which can be compared to the three classical unities of theatre: unity of the place of work (workshop, cottage industry, factory, office), unity of the time of work (weekly work schedules, rest periods), and unity of action (collective organization of work). In the late 20th century, unity of place began to “fissure” with the development of outsourcing and global value chains and the coordination of subsidiaries. Today, the platform economy and the new forms of outsourcing it makes possible are contributing to the erosion of all these foundations, at least in certain segments of the economy. This erosion is having the effect of “liquefying” work and weakening the historical social model. Work in the platform economy escapes the controls of place, time and collective organization. In other words, for platform workers there are no company premises, no colleagues, no schedules, no staff representatives, no health and safety regulations, no prevention of accidents at work, no paid holidays, no collective bargaining and no health insurance. This new model of tenuous and precarious employment has given rise in recent years to experimentation with innovative practices, including not only creation of autonomous collectives, organization of collective actions and formulation of worker demands but also the more traditional repertoire of action of the trade union movement: outreach, organization and negotiation. Admittedly, these strategies are confronted with novel obstacles, such as difficulty in identifying the person in charge of the employment relationship, absence of a place for social dialogue, confusion over worker status and difficulty in organizing the scattered groups of workers without places where they can meet and discuss. Despite their limitations, these social experiments can be seen as the beginnings of a social model adapted to the platform economy and, more broadly, to digitalization of the economy.