A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Informal employment on domestic care platforms: a study on the individualisation of risk and unpaid labour in mature market contexts
Authors: Pulignano Valeria, Marà Claudia, Franke Milena, Muszynski Karol
Publisher: Sage
Publication year: 2023
Journal: Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research
Volume: 29
Issue: 3
First page : 323
Last page: 228
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/10242589231177353
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1177/10242589231177353
This article explains how digitally mediated provision of domestic care services perpetuates the invisibility and informality of such work through individualising risk, which we operationalise by one of its dimensions, that of unpaid labour. We understand unpaid labour as the cost of the risk borne individually by workers at the intersection of the social (inter-personal) and economic (monetary) spheres. Drawing on the experiences of domestic care workers providing their services through platforms, the study shows how platforms have made their way into the labour markets and welfare structures of two mature economies, Belgium and France. Via their (digital) rules, they pursue ‘regulatory compliance’ and ‘disruption’ as distinct strategies for establishing platform dominance, albeit with country-based differences. Platform-mediated employment outcomes remain generally unrecognised, undocumented and informal, with unpaid labour characterising the cost of the individualisation of risk.