Crowd Work in the European Gig Economy Employment in the Era of Online Platforms. Conference on the Launch of the Report

Project

There is much talk about the disruptive potential of digitalisation and the sharing economy on labour markets. But surprisingly little is known about the realities of ‘gig work’ and the new types of employment created by online platforms. Is it a liberating new form of self-employment or a new form of exploitation? How many workers are doing it? Who are they? Is it their main source of income or a top-up to other kinds of work? What is the reality of their working lives? And what are the implications of these new realities for public policy in Europe?

FEPS in partnership with UNI Europa, the European services workers union and the University of Hertfordshire, decided to continue the research on “Work in the European Gig Economy”. Building on research results of the previous years, the report of 2018 will present the results of a survey across a new set of seven European countries (France, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Slovenia, Spain), revealing, for the first time, the extent and characteristics of crowd workers in the respective countries. Co-funding for the national surveys was provided by the French Fondation Jean-Jaurès, the Czech Masarykova Demokraticka, the Estonian Foresight Center, the Slovenian Progresiva and the Spanish Felipe Gonzales Foundation. Fieldwork for the surveys in these seven countries is carried out by Ipsos MORI between April 2017 and June 2018.

The report launch in Brussels planned for autumn 2018 will be an occasion to promote an open debate on the new forms of labour; a debate that is relevant for both academic and policy-relevant research. To this end, speakers for institutions, academia, unions, new businesses and think tanks will be gathered at FEPS.

Project lead: Prof. Ursula Hews

Full report on Work in the European Gig Economy (2017)

The data from the first seven surveys conducted in 2017 are now publicly available online via the University of Hertfordshire's Research Archive

Or via a DOI number:

DOI: 10.18745/DS.19911

Conference: Crowd Work in the European Gig Economy, November 2018