Essential or Excluded? Union Pressures and State Responses to Platform Work in Three Liberal Market Economies

Resource type
Authors/contributors
Title
Essential or Excluded? Union Pressures and State Responses to Platform Work in Three Liberal Market Economies
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic led to renewed discussion of decent work for people at the margins of the labour market. This article explores public policy on platform workers across three liberal market economies, namely the United Kingdom, Canada and Ireland, taking the pandemic as a focal point. Liberal market economies are generally difficult environments for unions, and we examine the nature of union political pressure on the state to enhance protections for platform workers and the extent to which policy has changed in each state. We find uneven levels of such union pressure, with the most limited attention afforded by Irish unions. In the United Kingdom, the unions did exert some influence through strategic litigation, creating a policy problem for the government. More progressive policies are evident in Canada, where the government recognises that platform workers’ precarious position has undesirable consequences for the state.
Publication
Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research
Date
2024
Language
English
ISSN
1024-2589
Short Title
Essential or Excluded?
Accessed
2/20/24, 6:44 PM
Library Catalog
SAGE Journals
Extra
Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
Citation
Duggan, J., O’Sullivan, M., & O’Sullivan, M. (2024). Essential or Excluded? Union Pressures and State Responses to Platform Work in Three Liberal Market Economies. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/10242589241231731