Conference Agenda

This special session is dedicated to the discussion of the book Bonvin, J.-M., Cianferoni, N., & Mexi, M. (Éds.). (2023). Social dialogue in the gig economy: a comparative empirical analysis. Edward Elgar Publishing. Its purpose is to fill the gap existing in the academic literature on how social dialogue can contribute to a more inclusive digital landscape in the growing gig economy. It provides four in-depth national case studies (Germany, Greece, Switzerland, United Kingdom) based on the analysis of different sectors (accommodation, cleaning, delivery and transportation services), as well as a discussion on how the model of the ILO Maritime Labour Convention could helpfully complement the actions taken at national level in the attempts to regulate platform work. A comparative approach between countries is needed to this purpose as they differ from each other considering with regard to their industrial relations and social protection systems. Some of the book’s authors will expose in the special session a precise analysis of their country’s situation in the process of shaping social dialogue, considering the precarious working conditions entailed by the gig economy and their implications in terms of access to adequate labour and social protection, as well as the ways how collective actions and mobilizations may have been decisive (or not) for letting social dialogue take place. Each paper implements an innovative multi-level perspective, as it tackles three levels or types of actors: the gig platforms, grass-roots and social partners' mobilizations, as well as national and international policy actors. Each level and its articulation with the other two have to be considered for understanding why and how a structured dialogue and collective bargaining takes place (or not) among governments, platform businesses and workers. This configuration offers a window of opportunity to the stakeholders for regulating the gig economy. The ILO can play a crucial role as part of a broader strategy to democratize the platform economy as a whole – from its governance to the ability of individual workers to organize and make decisions together about their work. In this perspective, this special session is held at a crucial time considering the evolution of the case law at national and international levels (which tends to increasingly consider gig workers as dependent workers) and the necessity to implement the ILO Decent Work Agenda also for digital work. Methodological and analytical aspects are presented in the abstracts.

In Switzerland, labour market regulation traditionally takes place through collective bargaining and social dialogue, based on decentralized and consensual relations between trade unions and employers’ associations. The legal and political debates related to the gig economy show a strong willingness to preserve the existing model of industrial relations. Nonetheless, the three case studies on cleaning, bike delivery and transportation – investigated on the basis of documentary analysis and 40 in-depth interviews with all stakeholders (platform managers, gig workers, trade unionists, business associations and policy-makers) – highlighted in this paper show that social dialogue is faced with significant difficulties when dealing with the gig economy. Thus, while this model has shown high resilience in the face of financial and economic globalization, evidence suggests that in the gig economy social partners need a stronger collective support from public authorities. Also, long-standing trade unions need to develop innovative strategies that would enhance gig workers’ capacity to organize and negotiate.

In the UK labour market, the traditional model of employment has come under pressure in recent years, primarily through the emergence of non-standard employment and the rise of an individualised form of ‘self-employment’ both of which have been associated with the rise of the ‘gig economy’. On the one hand, some policymakers and employers have characterised this evoluation as reflective of new opportunities for flexibility for the worker; on the other hand, these forms of employment have been translated by other policymakers along with trade unionists as a diminution of workers’ rights and constraints to the earning potential, skills development and employment security of workers. Drawing upon academic and policy literature to explore findings from interviews with policymakers, trade unionists and gig workers, we find a difficult environment in the UK for social dialogue. We conclude that opportunities for more effective social dialogue are needed in the UK in order that adequate protections can be developed.

Unlike other European countries, the gig economy has not constituted a topic of contention between Greek workers and employers, and it has not given rise to a new framework for facilitating collaboration or social dialogue between the parties involved. In trying to understand this development, this paper seeks to assess how the nature and evolution of Greek social partnership have affected social partners' (non-) responses. Greece is a representative case of a Southern European country characterized by crony capitalism and weak labour market institutions, strong clientelism and low levels of policy concertation, and a history of adversarial industrial relations, trade union fragmentation and low institutionalization of bargaining procedures. Based on documentary analysis and in-depth interviews with all stakeholders, our empirical findings indicate that these context-specific characteristics have fed into policy legacies and institutional inadequacies that have proven decisive in the ways the social partners have sought to understand and respond to the growth of the gig economy.