Trajectories and subjectivities of delivery platform workers in Argentina. Results from a panel survey (2020-2022)

HAIDAR JULIETA

Amsterdam

Conferencia; Conference ?Global Perspectives on Platforms, Labor & Social Reproduction?; 2023

Platform Labor research Project, University of Amsterdam

Platform work is a global phenomenon that has specificities according to the region in which it takes place. This contribution aims to analyse, in particular, the evolution of working conditions and the sociodemographic profile of delivery platforms’ workers in Argentina, a country in the global South that, like other countries in the region, is characterised by high levels of labour informality.As we have analyzed in a previous article (Haidar & Pla, 2021), platforms constitute a labour refuge for vulnerable population: initially, migrant workers and, in a second moment, Argentines who, due to the Covid crisis, suffered a reduction in their income or lost their jobs, many of them also precarious. It was also evident that during the pandemic, the platforms took advantage of the oversupply of the labour force to make the already precarious working conditions even more precarious.Taking into account this information, in this presentation we pretend to go a step forward. We will compare the results of two surveys carried out in July/August 2020 during pandemic times, and in the same period in 2022, in post-pandemic times. We aim to recognize and analyze the workers´ profiles as well as their labour trajectories taking into account working conditions, incomes and their representations about employment. Are platform workers “structural informal workers”? In what extent there is a professionalization of this job? Which are alternative jobs for these workers?The first survey was conducted during Covid restrictions, with a non-probabilistic sampling given the relatively new nature of the platforms and that workers are a “hidden population” (Scharager & Armijo, 2001). We used a sample of 401 workers built with “snowball” technique, taking into account “quotas” based on previous knowledge about this population. We collected information regarding socio-demographic profiles, working conditions, workers representations related to their work, among other subjects.The second survey was conducted as a panel survey. The same workers were contacted, with a mix questionnaire: we repeated some questions from 2020´s survey and added some new questions. We asked, among other subjects: Who are those who still work in delivery platforms? Why do they continue with this job? What do they think about it? On the other hand, who are those who left this job and why did they do it? Where are they currently working? What do they think about the former and the later job? 201 people were surveyed by telephone, i.e. 50% of the original sample (40% could not be reached, and only about 10% refused to answer the survey).