Worktime arrangements for platform workers: a comparative study

FERNÁNDEZ MASSI, MARIANA; LONGO, JULIETA; DARRICADES, MARÍA

London, University of Greenwich

Conferencia; 39th International Labour Process Conference; 2021

Centre for Research on Employment and Work (CREW), University of Greenwich

The rapid growth of the platform economy, accelerated during the COVID crisis, is blurring the limits between work and personal times. Optimistic perspectives of these changes emphasize the possibility to gain sovereignty of our time, choosing freely when to work, while a gloomier view highlights a tendency to extend and intensify working time. Both may be right, depending on the group of workers and the kind of platform we are considering, because one of the main characteristics of platform economy is its heterogeneity. The main goal of this study is to shed light on how worktime schedules are changing and what kind of arrangement platform workers make to set up work and ?non-work? times.This paper draws on a comparative study case among workers performing different kind of tasks using platforms. On the one hand, we consider delivery couriers; and on the other, graphic designers. The research is carried out in Buenos Aires (Argentina) in 2020, in a period of a flexible quarantine, through 1-hour-interviews with workers of each group identifying not just their working time schedule during the pandemic, but also in pre-pandemic time. The contribution of this study is twofold. Firstly, we provide an understanding for how platforms regulate working-time and the differences among them. Despite the opacity of the algorithm, workers can identify rewards and punishments, and in this way, they identify how each platform regulates working time. Secondly, we argue that although time flexibility is considered as a positive feature, workers develop their own system to structure working time. The way they do so and the repercussion on life-work balance depend on some prime determinants: the platform incentives, their economic dependence on the platform, the combination with other jobs/studies, the safety nets they have, their family schemes and their expectations to get other jobs soon. In general, this flexibility does not lead to a better balance between work and spare time, but to an extension and intensification of work. While among delivery couriers this is presented as a way to get better incomes or to avoid platform punishments, among designers it is displayed as a personal problem to focus on working at home.Our findings suggest that even though time flexibility is appreciated by platform workers, there is also a need to structure working times, to disconnect with no penalization and to have a schedule that, in the case of couriers, guarantees having constant rides and less waiting times. These findings can serve as the basis for the regulation debate carried on locally in Argentina and also globally, showing that workers tend to agree on the need for a flexible, but clearly defined working time schedule.