There is talk of a new digital precariousness. There gig economy online in our country has undergone a surge in recent years mainly due to the Covid pandemic. The so-called "occasional jobs with which to round off", however, concern only a small slice of the workers of the digital platforms: for 80,3% it is an important if not essential source of support, while for 48,1% (equal to 274 thousand subjects) it represents the main activity and in the absence of employment alternatives (for 50,7%) . But only 11% have an employee contract. It is, therefore, a poor, fragile job.
It is the photograph of the policy brief "Virtual work in the real world: the data of the Inapp-Plus survey on platform workers in Italy", which offers a national mapping of platform work workers in Italy in all its various manifestations.
The survey involved over 45 respondents and anticipates its data a few days after the presentation of the proposal of last December 9 for a directive from the European Commission for the improvement of working conditions in the platforms, debunking the myths of the sharing economy. Digital platforms increasingly attract rigidly controlled forms of work (in terms of times and methods), often paid on a piece-rate basis (50,4% of cases) and whose earnings are essential for those who do it.
He intervened on the proposal Sebastian Fadda, president of Inapp, underlining how important it is to regulate and protect the work of the platforms. “In this new context, up to five and a half million digital workers in Europe could be reclassified as subordinate workers, thus enjoying some basic rights (including minimum wage, working hours, safety and health at work, forms of insurance and protection social) hitherto denied. These guarantees would make it possible not only to balance the interest of users of such services in a more equitable manner with the right to decent working conditions, but also to ensure healthier competitive conditions in the various markets and greater tax transparency".
Returning to the survey, in the period 2020/21 there are 570.521 digital platform workers. It's not just about gods RIDER, but of a heterogeneous set of activities ranging from the delivery of parcels or home meals to the performance of online tasks such as translations, computer programs, image recognition. They represent 1,3 of the population aged 18-74, or 25,6% of the total number of those who earn through the internet.
To these must be added those who sell products (advertising platforms) or rent owned goods (product platforms) for a total of 2.228.427 individuals (5,2% of the population between 18 and 74 years old) who declare they have earned an income through digital platforms between 2020 and 2021.
THE IDENTIKIT OF THE PLATFORM WORKER
Three-quarters of platform workers are men. Seven out of ten are between 30 and 49 years old, with young people aged between 18 and 29 mainly concentrated in the category of casual workers. The educational qualification is not particularly different from that of the general population, except for a greater presence of graduates.
According to the survey, however, those who work through platforms as their main activity have higher levels of education (at least a diploma), while those who do it occasionally have lower educational qualifications. 45,1% of platform workers belong to the "couple with children" type, but the share rises to 59,1% in the case of workers who consider platform work a secondary activity. Conversely, people who occasionally collaborate with a platform are more frequently single (37,9%).
THE DIGITAL CARPORALATE
Platform work also lends itself to conditions of reduced autonomy and suspicions of irregular relationships, or even phenomena of "caporalato". About three out of ten workers do not have one contract written, 26% do not directly manage the work account to access the platform and for 13% the payment is managed by another external entity. Furthermore, it should be noted that 72% had to undergo an assessment test in order to work with the platform.
SLAVES OF THE ALGORITHM
The most widespread system for evaluating the work performed is that linked to the number of commitments or assignments completed (59,2% of cases) followed by the customers' opinion (42,1%). This confirms that for many platform workers it is not self-employment but dependent.
In four out of ten cases, a negative assessment or unavailability to carry out the tasks corresponds to a worsening of the type of work assigned, with a reduction in the most profitable job opportunities compared to the tasks as a whole (40,7%). Furthermore, the negative assessment causes 4,3% of workers to fail to pay for the service performed, up to "forced disconnection" from the platform in 2,8% of cases, a sort of dismissal occult.
