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- Convenor:
-
Kate Meagher
(London School of Economics and Political Science)
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- Formats:
- Papers Mixed
- Stream:
- Global inequalities
- Sessions:
- Thursday 1 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Labour contracting, digital connections, and BoP linkages have woven informal and gig workers into the heart of the formal economy, requiring a New Deal for precarious workers. Do inclusive linkages, cash transfers, and civil society engagement serve to normalize or transform precarity after COVID?
Long Abstract:
Jobless growth and inclusive labour linkages have woven informal and gig workers into the heart of the formal economy. Far from fading away, informality now accounts for 61% of global employment. COVID-19 exposed the vital role and vulnerability of the large precarious workforce in economies across the Global North and South, prompting growing calls for a New Deal for precarious workers. While some emphasize the employment-generating opportunities of incorporating the poor and unemployed into digital platforms and global value chains, others question whether labour contracting, digital and BoP linkages expand or undermine decent work.
This panel invites papers that explore whether and how inclusive linkages and social protection initiatives tend to normalize or transform precarious work. Empirical and fieldwork-based papers on the influence of COVID on particular cases of economic inclusion for precarious workers are especially welcome. Focusing on digital, labour contracting, global value chain, or corporate Bottom of the Pyramid linkages with informal and precarious workers, this panel raises questions about their effects on decent work, inequality and the social contract. Do COVID-inspired pressures for better social protection of precarious workers address ongoing losses of income and labour rights? The panel examines whether New Deal narratives for precarious workers address or merely stabilize poverty and informal working conditions. What demands for protection are emerging from precarious workers themselves, through collective organization, alliances with labour unions, or innovative legal cases? This panel examines how inclusive linkages and a post-COVID social contract can offer a better deal for precarious workers.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 1 July, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
Building on insights from field practice and empirical investigation of worker experiences in three sectors of India's platform economy, this paper charts a contextually-grounded policy roadmap for designing effective social protection for gig workers, moving beyond a one-size-fits all approach.
Paper long abstract:
In response to increasing pressure from labour movement organisations during the pandemic about the alarming predicament of gig workers, the Government of India has currently come up with a social security scheme for this sector that is expected to generate 56% of future employment opportunities. Though the scheme is yet to be firmed up, initial signs indicate that the government may be opting for a one-size-fits-all approach that is not fully attuned to the differential experiences of workers across various parts of the platform economy. IT for Change, the organisation that the authors are with, has been engaging for the past one year with unions and scholar-practitioners committed to platform workers' rights to construct a bottom-up social protection agenda. Drawing upon this experience, the proposed paper will empirically examine what it means to translate universal social protection principles into effective schemes for three sectors of the platform economy: ridehailing/on-demand delivery; remote online freelancing in IT/ITeS services; and logistics/warehousing operations of e-commerce marketplaces. Through a total of 15 qualitative interviews with workers and experts, the paper will examine the specificities of the work contract, worker-platform firm dynamic, and worker perceptions about work flexibility and employment guarantees in each of the three sectors. Through this empirically rooted exploration, the paper will arrive at a contextually grounded social security framework bringing together universal labour rights principles with sector-specific employment realities for digital day labour in India.
Paper short abstract:
This paper argues that the relationships between informal workers and states – and the politics of creating and accessing these linkages – are a critical and frequently overlooked part of the politics of the COVID 19 pandemic.
Paper long abstract:
Informal workers are both particularly vulnerable to the health and economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and often neglected by policy responses. At the same time, the crisis has rapidly changed the ways that states engage with informal workers. We argue that the relationships between informal workers and states – and the politics of creating and accessing these linkages – are a critical and frequently overlooked part of the politics of the pandemic. Both pre-existing structural disconnections from the state, such as limited access to health infrastructure, and state attempts at building new connections, such as cash transfer programmes for informal workers, have a profound impact on states’ ability to support large sections of their populations throughout the crisis. Consequently, without considering the varied and dynamic nature of the linkages between states and informal workers we cannot understand the heterogeneous health and economic landscape of the pandemic, state capacity to respond to the crisis, or institutional change in the context of crisis.
Paper short abstract:
Since 2015, motorbike-haling technology firms have hailed their transformation of the Lagos motorbike-taxi (okada) sector while raising millions in funding. Yet, the Lagos government banned okadas in 2020 citing safety concerns. This paper examines the true ‘impact’ of these firms in Lagos.
Paper long abstract:
Over the last five years, motorbike-haling firms have touted their transformative effect on Lagos’s motorbike-taxi (okada) sector. Upon their arrival, they predicted a new dawn for okada drivers and customers alike, and their visions were backed with tens of millions of US dollars in investor funding. However, on January 27, 2020, the Lagos state government announced via Twitter that commercial motorcycles (okada) and tricycles (keke) would be banned in six local government areas (LGA) from February 1, 2020 and onward. This is not the first time Lagos has banned both types of vehicles. However, this ban not only removed motorbike-taxis, but effectively removed motorbike-hailing firms from their largest market. The six affected LGAs encompassed a significant percentage of Lagos traffic, and unable to ferry customers in high-demand areas of Lagos, the firms lost large volumes of rides and the ability charge higher fares. It is no surprise that the firms engaged in intensive negotiations over the 18 months prior to the ban with state government and other stakeholders to avoid the outcome. Subsequently, half-a-decade after the firms’ market entry, the state government’s motorbike-taxi ban delivered a crippling financial blow that has put the survival of these firms into question. Therefore, the period between 2015 and 2020 provides a discrete window of time to analyse the ‘impact’ of the bike-hailing technology firms in Lagos and their relationship with the state government. Understanding their impact requires an in-depth look at the firms’ relationships with drivers, regulators, customers, and each other.