India's digital economy workforce is set to expand

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Working Conditions ◽  
Food Delivery ◽  
Digital Economy ◽  
Gender Gaps ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Indian Consumers ◽  
Software Services

Significance Not only has the range of software services provided widened, but a host of other services are being delivered remotely and in person through digital platforms to Indian consumers. This diversification is changing the working conditions of India’s burgeoning digital economy workforce. Impacts Wages in the digital gig economy will fall as more workers enter this segment. Platform work in unskilled areas such as food delivery will lower India’s long-term skills base. Gender gaps in the digital economy will persist given the lack of policy correctives.

Mexico's digital economy faces labour reform pressures

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Drop Out ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Gender Based

Significance The bill will be debated when the new legislature elected in the June 6 mid-term elections is sworn in and starts sessions in September. Besides this bill, the Senate (upper house) is considering three other initiatives to redefine the labour relationship between platforms and their contracted services providers. Impacts High drop-out rates among students in upper secondary school and higher education will increase the number of young gig workers. Women will continue to represent a minority of digital platforms’ workers, widening gender-based economic inequality. Regulations to improve working conditions in the digital gig economy will have a limited impact on reducing Mexico’s informal economy.

Women gig workers raise pressure for labour reform

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Working Conditions ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Population Ageing ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Technology Platforms ◽  
Care Economy ◽  
And Storage ◽  
New Jobs

Subject Women in the gig economy. Significance Work in the ‘gig economy’ relies on digital platforms to bring workers and purchasers of their services together. It has brought new jobs for women but also reinforced existing gender divides in the labour market, with more women, for example, in domestic work than in transport and storage sectors of the gig economy. Impacts The 'care economy' will grow considerably in developed countries due to population ageing and cuts in government funded services. Collective action among female gig workers in isolated domestic spheres will be difficult. Technology platforms themselves could become the forums through which gig workers organise for better working conditions.

African digital economy faces uneven outlook

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Internet Use ◽  
Digital Economy ◽  
Gender Disparities ◽  
Government Investment ◽  
Gender Gaps ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Digital Skills ◽  
Internet Penetration

Significance This is attributable to relatively low internet penetration, the limited number of digital platforms and e-commerce businesses, and low investment and digital skills levels. These factors loom over Africa’s future digital economy and its ability to employ the regional workforce. Impacts Government investment in expanding telecoms infrastructure and increasing digital skills is key. Modest growth in the digital economy will help the continent to recover from pandemic-linked downturns. Given existing gender disparities in internet use, the growth of the digital economy will deepen rather than reduce gender gaps.

Digital Platforms, Gig Economy, Precarious Employment, and the Invisible Hand of Social Class

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 597-600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carles Muntaner
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Invisible Hand ◽  
Class Conflict ◽  
Precarious Employment ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Digital Platform ◽  
Employment Conditions ◽  
Gig Economy

Digital platform capitalism, as exemplified by companies like Uber or Lyft has the potential to transform employment and working conditions for an increasing segment of the worforce. Most digital economy workers are exposed to the health damaging precarious employment conditions characteristic of the contemporary working class in high income countries. Just as with Guy Standing or Mike Savage’s “precariat” it might appear that digital platform workers are a new social class or that they do not belong to any social class. Yet the class conflict interests (wages, benefits, employment and working conditions, collective action) of digital platform workers are similar to other members of the working class.

Food delivery apps in India: wherein lies the success strategy?

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (7) ◽  
pp. 12-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Meenakshi ◽  
Anamika Sinha
Keyword(s):  
Customer Loyalty ◽  
High Growth ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Food Delivery ◽  
Attrition Rate ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fleet Size ◽  
Loyal Customer ◽  
Food Tech

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand the evolution, current competitive scenario, and future direction for the food-tech business in the Indian market. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on press reports, industry reports, and secondary information about companies based on interviews of CEOs, analysts, industry trend watchers, and academicians. Findings The incumbents are competing on the basis of various parameters such as capital infusion (especially, funding), tie-ups with restaurants, customer loyalty, fleet size and management, and management of employees. High growth is driving volumes for all companies, although there is lack of differentiation in offerings. Companies need to build customer loyalty and seek diverse monetization models for profitability in the future. Research limitations/implications First, food-tech companies need to identify means of differentiation to gain competitive advantage. Second, customer loyalty is the key to long-term profitability and firms need to identify ways to build it. Promotions and offers cannot build loyalty. Third, firms would need to expand into different types of monetization methods, such as cloud kitchens, B2B food delivery services, to build revenues and profits. Practical implications Incumbents and prospective entrants in the food-tech industry need to understand the structure of the industry and the structure of competition to be able to succeed in the long term. They need to understand that promotions cannot be a differentiator and that funding will dry up. Therefore, it is critical to identify means of differentiation to build a loyal customer base. Social implications The food-tech industry in India has strong social foundation. More than 50 per cent of the Indian population is below the age of 25, the percentage of working population is increasing in India and so are income levels. In this context, the food-tech business is important as order outs are increasing. This, however, has also led to problems in the workforce for such startups as companies do not want to invest in employee training, safety or work conditions owning to high attrition rate because of the standardized nature of the job. Originality/value This paper makes an attempt to assimilate information about the progress of the food-tech industry in India in the last few years. It attempts to identify various factors that decide the nature of competition among incumbent players. It also identifies what factors these incumbents need to bear in mind while looking ahead.

scholarly journals Re-thinking gig economy in conventional workforce post-COVID-19: a blended approach for upholding fair balance

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manjari Mahato ◽  
Nitish Kumar ◽  
Lalatendu Kesari Jena
Keyword(s):  
Business Models ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Employee Morale ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Skill Sets ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Job Opportunities ◽  
Management Functions ◽  
Fair Balance

PurposeDespite the trend, managing and maximizing the effectiveness of blended workforce is not well-understood. The purpose of this paper is to institutionalize a blended workforce model in the post-COVID era, that is, a movement from homogenous workforce to heterogenous workforce of full-time employees working in tandem with gig talents connected via digital platforms.Design/methodology/approachThe evolution of gig economy is presented for contextualizing the development of prospective business models in the post-COVID era to establish clarity on the relationship between the employers and the blended workforce. To achieve this conceptual switch, a framework is proposed to support this type of workforce for creating a fair balance.FindingsBy drawing on the concepts of various talent management functions, propositions were made predicting that the alignment of the multilateral activities of the gig workers with permanent workforce will be leveraged in the future to address the needs of short-term specialized skill-sets and scalable operations while creating a fair balance through a flexible and agile workforce.Originality/valueFirst, the paper explores how bridging the gap between the traditional and gig workforce can impact the key antecedents of a blended workforce ensuring a fair trial. Second, on an economical level, the COOKIE framework proposed in the paper is expected to play a crucial role in creating new job opportunities, boosting employee morale while minimizing costs and increasing productivity of the organizations.

Struggles of Delivery Workers in Brazil: Working Conditions and Collective Organization during the Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Ludmila Costhek Abilio ◽  
Rafael Grohmann ◽  
Henrique Chevrand Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Working Conditions ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Food Delivery ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Organization Management ◽  
Class Composition ◽  
New Type ◽  
And Control

Abstract This article aims to analyze food delivery workers’ working conditions and ongoing collective organization during the pandemic in Brazil. The discussion involves historical analysis, based on empirical research carried out with delivery couriers over the past eight years in Brazil and on analysis of the delivery workers’ strikes in July of 2020. Our view is that their work is subsumed to a new type of work organization, management and control, defined here as uberization. Recent investigation shows that their working conditions are worsening during the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of reduced working hour value alongside unchangingly long workdays. These conditions have been met by platform workers’ collective organizations demanding better working conditions. Our findings indicate an ongoing political struggle involving different institutions, and the central role of communication between workers through digital platforms as the first form of organization. From the class composition framework, we understand that there is a germ for political composition involving Brazilian riders, in line with the circulation of workers’ struggles around the world, especially in Latin America.

Motivations for Labour Provision on Digital Platforms in Europe

2022 ◽  
pp. 81-103
Author(s):  
Joan Torrent-Sellens ◽  
Pilar Ficapal-Cusí ◽  
Myriam Ertz
Keyword(s):  
Working Conditions ◽  
Job Quality ◽  
The Other ◽  
Public Employment ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Research Results ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Economic Foundations

Research on the gig economy has rarely addressed the study on the motivations for the provision of labour services on digital platforms. Through a sample of 3,619 gigers in Europe, obtained from the COLLEM research, results have been obtained for labour providers (only gigers) and for labour and capital use providers (gigers and renters). The valuation of labour, being an internal resource of the gigers, has a great set of economic foundations, working conditions, and labour relations. On the other hand, the valuation of labour and capital uses is more focused on their economic and labour relations fundamentals, notably reducing the role of working conditions. These motivations suggest different platform strategies and public employment policies for both groups. While the promotion of the general job quality would also encourage the gig-job quality, the promotion of the labour and capital uses valuation requires specific actions on the platform operations.

Explaining the decline of tipping norms in the gig economy

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 233-245
Author(s):  
Erik P. Duhaime ◽  
Zachary W. Woessner
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Social Norm ◽  
Food Delivery ◽  
Amazon Mechanical Turk ◽  
Fixed Amount ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Worker Autonomy

Purpose Advances in information technology have enabled new ways of organizing work and led to a proliferation of what is known as the “gig economy.” While much attention has been paid to how these new organizational designs have upended traditional employee–employer relationships, there has been little consideration of how these changes have impacted the social norms and expectations that govern the relationship between workers and consumers. The purpose of this paper is to consider the social norm of tipping and propose that gig work is associated with a breakdown of tipping norms in part because of workers’ increased autonomy in terms of deciding when and whether to work. Design/methodology/approach The authors present four studies to support their hypothesis: a survey vignette experiment with workers on Amazon Mechanical Turk (Study 1), an analysis of New York City taxi data (Study 2), a field experiment with restaurant employee food delivery drivers (Study 3) and a field experiment with gig-worker food delivery drivers (Study 4). Findings In Studies 1 and 2, they find that consumers are less likely to tip when workers have autonomy in deciding whether to complete a task. In Study 3, they find that restaurant delivery employees notice upfront tips (or lack thereof) and alter their service as a result. In contrast, in Study 4, they find that gig-workers who agree to complete a delivery for a fixed amount that includes an upfront tip (or lack thereof) are not responsive to tips. Together, these findings suggest that the gig economy has not only transformed employee-employer relationships, but has also altered the norms and expectations of consumers and workers. Originality/value The authors present four different studies that consider the social norm of tipping in the context of gig work. Together, they highlight that perceptions of worker autonomy have driven the decline in tipping norms associated with gig work.

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