Bottom-up strategies, platform worker power and local action: Learning from ridehailing drivers

In the digital gig economy, workers generally have limited power and are disadvantaged compared to platform operators, who are usually large technology firms. Workers are often independent contractors rather than employees in this emerging form of work. While beneficial to platform companies, these arrangements place considerable risk on workers. Moreover, the structure of the gig economy presents challenges to traditional labor organizing strategies. To identify strategies used by ridehailing drivers to improve their working conditions and highlight points of intervention for policy makers and labor organizers, we draw upon an analysis of interviews and videos posted by YouTube diarists working for Uber. We find that ridehailing drivers improve their working conditions through business planning, leveraging competition between platforms, building solidarity through social media, and using technology to manage the workplace. We find that drivers favor individualistic strategies and often lack the institutional support and knowledge to benefit more fully from these strategies. We argue that local governments and labor market intermediaries offer the potential to empower ridehailing drivers and reinvigorate interest in collective action through workforce development tools if they build on the strategies these gig workers already use.

Online labor platforms versus temp agencies: What are the differences?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare online labor platforms (OLPs) such as Upwork, Fiverr, YoungOnes and Temper with traditional temp agencies. At a first glance, OLPs and temp agencies strongly resemble each other while they aim to meet the need for short-term labor of organizations. The authors ask the question how these labor market intermediaries differ on issues such as information technology usage, ways how labor supply and demand are matched and working conditions (e.g. status, pay and social security of workers). Design/methodology/approach Next to a review of the academic literature, the authors conducted interviews with representatives of six OLPs and temp agencies in the Netherlands as well as a legal specialist in Dutch labor law. Findings The authors found that OLPs and temp agencies differ on several issues. First, although OLPs rely on online marketplaces for matching labor supply and demand, temp agencies generally rely on human matchmakers. Second, although OLPs enable workers and client organizations to initiate transactions themselves, temp agencies employ representatives that do the matching for workers and clients. Third, and as a result, OLPs afford client organizations to almost instantly hire workers on-demand, whereas the flexibility and speed that temp agencies can offer depend on availability and processing capacity of human matchmakers. Originality/value According to the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to compare OLPs and temp agencies and, in doing so, offers academics and practitioners an analytical framework to compare different types of labor market intermediaries.

INFORMATION SUPPORT OF THE LABOR MARKET OF UKRAINE AND EASTERN EUROPE: INNOVATION ASPECTS

Introduction. The processes of informatization of society, reform of state institutions and transformation of the economic system of Ukraine identify new problems and set new challenges for regulating the labor market and employment on the basis of public-private partnership, including by bringing to all labor market actors relevant information from verified sources. Given the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union, Ukraine should take into account the experience of Eastern European countries that have been in similar transition conditions and have shown significant progress, in particular in overcoming the problems and threats in the labor markets that they have encountered in the process of European integration. Purpose and objectives. There is a necessity to justify the expediency of integration of information of subjects in the labor market of Ukraine for the purpose of formation of uniform information support of the labor market that will promote legal productive employment of citizens. Methodology. The article is based on international legal acts, laws and bylaws of Ukraine in the field of employment and regulation of labor market processes in the context of the functioning of a single information environment, formed on the basis of public-private partnership. Both general and special methods were used for the research: methods of analysis and synthesis, descriptive method, methods of induction and deduction. Results. The article analyzes the regulation of the European labor market by integrating the capabilities of national public employment services, the implementation of equal opportunities in free labor mobility for European workers. The data and experience of the countries of Eastern Europe are given. The institutional and legislative aspects of the functioning of private mediation in the domestic labor market are considered and it is proved that in Ukraine there is currently no regulatory influence of the state on the activities of private mediation in this market, and regulatory support in this area is imperfect. It is studied that information flows of private intermediaries, including job search and recruiting websites, operate independently of state intermediaries, and the public does not fully have up-to-date information on the state and needs of the domestic labor market. The article highlights the role of the government and the State Employment Service in the formation of information support of the labor market, compares the published data, provides relevant recommendations of the International Labor Organization and foreign experience. Conclusions. The information published in Ukraine by private labor market intermediaries needs full attention, as its connection with informal employment is not excluded. Given the impact of globalization challenges on the functioning and development of the domestic labor market, it is proposed to standardize the activities of private labor market intermediaries, including job search and recruiting websites, by including their data on labor supply and demand in the domestic labor market. For Ukraine, the experience of the European countries in cooperation between public and private intermediaries in the labor market, based on the creation of single information support of the labor market, including through joining the EURES system, is relevant.

Perceived Employability of Highly Skilled Migrant Women in STEM: Insights from Labor Market Intermediaries’ Professionals

While global economies are in a tremendous need for talented workers that could fill vacancies in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, available evidence shows that highly skilled migrants with a background in these fields are not protected from brain waste and deskilling. In this paper, we add to the previous literature on the employability of highly skilled migrant women from the specific—and under-investigated—perspective of labor market intermediaries. We specifically investigate what the barriers and resources are for employability of highly skilled migrant women in STEM, as perceived by labor market intermediaries’ professionals; and what the training needs are that labor market intermediaries’ professionals perceive to effectively work with this target group. We use unique explorative survey data collected in 2018 in five countries (Greece, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom) from professionals working in diverse labor market intermediary organizations. We find that these professionals perceive the employability of migrant women in STEM as rather low, and strongly determined by migrant women’s psychological capital. Professionals in Southern Europe perceive structural barriers as more important than those in other countries. Professionals display training needs related to ad-hoc mentoring and networking competences for this specific target group. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.

Methods of commiting fraud in the field of provision of employment mediation services

It is emphasized that imperfection and the presence of conflicts in labor and civil legislation have led to the spread of abuses in the labor market. Somewhat «vulnerable» was the provision of employment services, where a fifth of the agreements between the intermediary, the employer and the employee are unpromising. It is emphasized that most employment agreements in the labor market are concluded in such a way that the terms of employment and the nature of the profession, as well as the responsibilities of the employer are very vague, resulting in Ukrainian citizens getting jobs that do not suit them, limit their rights but the terms of the agreement are not formally violated. Meanwhile, in the labor market is gaining momentum options that have elements of deception, and are no longer in the plane of civil law, and are subject to criminal law assessment. The article is devoted to the study of criminological significant features of fraud methods in the field of employment services. Attention is paid to the description of methods, clarification of their features, the implementation of their systematization. It is emphasized that fraudulent actions can be committed by persons related to the labor market - intermediaries, employers and the unemployed (61%), and persons who intentionally pretend to be such persons (49%). At the same time, fraudulent actions can be committed in different sectors of the labor market, in different periods, in different spaces. Based on different classification criteria, all options for fraudulent employment are summarized according to the following criteria: Depending on the subject: 1) persons related to the labor market; 2) persons who intentionally impersonate such persons. Depending on the industry affiliation: 1) fraudulent actions in the field of material production; 2) fraudulent actions in the field of goods and services - non-productive. Depending on the space: 1) deceptive actions in the domestic labor market; 2) fraudulent actions related to employment abroad; 3) fraudulent actions related to getting a job on the Internet (remote access). Depending on the location of employment intermediaries and employers: 1) fraudulent actions committed in offices that have a factual or legal address (fictitious and real employment firms); 2) fraudulent acts committed in "virtual employment centers". According to the legitimacy of labor activity: 1) deceptive actions when offering official employment; 2) fraudulent actions when offering illegal employment. Depending on the forms of employment: 1) fraudulent actions when offering full employment; 2) fraudulent actions when offering a flexible work schedule. Depending on the duration of employment: 1) fraudulent actions when offering long-term employment; 2) fraudulent actions when offering temporary employment (seasonal work, performing a certain type of work during a certain period, etc.).

Home Care Fault Lines

This revealing look at home care illustrates how elderly and disabled people and the immigrant women workers who assist them in daily activities develop meaningful relationships even when their different ages, abilities, races, nationalities, and socioeconomic backgrounds generate tension. As the book shows, workers can experience devaluation within racialized and gendered class hierarchies, which shapes their pursuit of security. The book analyzes the tensions, alliances, and compromises between security for workers and flexibility for elderly and disabled people, and argues that workers and recipients negotiate flexibility and security within intersecting inequalities in varying ways depending on multiple interacting dynamics. What comes through from the book's analysis is the need for deeply democratic alliances across multiple axes of inequality. To support both flexible care and secure work, the book argues for an intimate community unionism that advocates for universal state funding, designs culturally sensitive labor market intermediaries run by workers and recipients to help people find jobs or workers, and addresses everyday tensions in home workplaces.

Translating People and Policy: The Role of Maid Agents in Brokering between Employers and Migrant Domestic Workers in Singapore’s Migration Industry

There has been a surge of recent interest in the migration industries that facilitate the movement of migrants, particularly that of low-waged laborers engaged in temporary contracts abroad. This article extends this research to include migration brokers working in destination contexts, thus drawing analytical attention to the arrival infrastructures that incorporate migrants into host societies. Based on ethnographic research involving the employment agents who recruit women migrating from Indonesia to work as migrant domestic workers in Singapore, we use the concept of “translation” as a broad theoretical metaphor to understand how brokers actively fashion knowledge between various actors, scales, interfaces, and entities. First, we argue that through the interpretation of language, brokers continually modulate meaning in the encounters between potential employers and employees at the agency shopfront, reproducing particular dynamics of power between employers and workers while coperforming the hirability of the migrant worker. Second, we show how brokers operate within the discretionary space between multiple sets of regulations in order to selectively inscribe the text of policy into migrant workers’ lives. By interrogating the process of translation and clarifying the latitude migration brokers have in shaping the working and living conditions of international labor migrants, the article contributes to the growing conceptual literature on how labor-market intermediaries contour migration markets.

Staffing agencies in work relationships with independent contractors

Purpose While staffing agencies are gaining importance in work relationships with the highly skilled workforce, their work relations with highly skilled independent contractors have not been investigated yet. Staffing agencies as labor market intermediaries charge a fee to help independent contractors as well as client organizations to create contracts for services while independent contractors remain self-employed. Besides their growing relevance, their exact role remains unclear. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of staffing agencies in work relationships with highly skilled independent contractors. Design/methodology/approach The authors applied a mixed-methods design comprising a qualitative interview study with independent contractors and staffing agencies’ representatives (n=29) coupled with a quantitative survey of staffing agencies (n=81). Findings The analysis shows that staffing agencies are important actors in work relationships with highly skilled independent contractors. However, the relationships can be differentiated into rather standardized ones on the one hand and individualized relations on the other hand. This seems to correspond with differences between sectors. Originality/value First, the authors discuss staffing agencies as new intermediaries and highlight their relevance in the negotiation of working conditions. Second, the authors emphasize variations of the role of staffing agencies in triadic work relationships of highly skilled independent contractors in relation to specificities of sectors. Third, the study also adds on organizational support theory and related research.

Bien agiter avant l’emploi. De l’activation des politiques d’emploi à l’agitation des chômeurs

By articulating a pragmatic approach of the labor market intermediaries with a systemic approach of the interactions at the State’s counters, the authors study the follow-up and accompaniment procedure of jobseekers in Belgium, within three public employment services. This procedure appears today as the most successful realization of a reform process, within the employment policies, that is still in progress since the middle of the 1990, under the influence of the European institutions (the European employment strategy). The authors analyze the role of the National Employment Office’s facilitators, the agents who are in charge of the jobseekers’ following-up procedure, that is the control of their effort to find a job. They also focus on the role of the employment counselors of two regional public services by showing that the employability – the official target of the activation policies – operate as a way to speak abstractly of employment and unemployment, as a way to sustain and to intensify the communication at the State’s counters. The action of the labor market intermediaries, qualified by the authors as a moral enterprise, can be characterized by its self-referential nature: to socialize the job seekers, to make them sensitive to the norms and standards of employability that are at stake in the three public employment services. According to the authors, the ‘labor market’ acts as a fiction: a simplified reconstruction of the world of work, within the political system, that serve as a readily available reference for the public action of intermediation.

How do labor market intermediaries help young Eastern Europeans find work?

This chapter examines the entry routes of young migrants from Eastern Europe into the Austrian labor market, focusing on the role of labor market intermediaries (LMIs) such as public employment services, online job portals, and temporary work agencies. It takes account of the perspectives of both employers and young migrants. The findings suggest that online job portals are the most prevalent type of LMI. Relatedly, informational services are more relevant than matchmaking and administrative services. The relevance of LMI types and services varies across sectors, indicating that LMIs to varying degrees fulfill specific functions in these sectors, such as reduction of transaction costs, risk management, and network building. The more nuanced understanding of entry routes provided by this chapter will help in the development of theoretical models explaining youth migration and design policy measures aimed at improving the labor market opportunities of young migrants from Eastern Europe.