The document discusses the consequences of platform economies on occupational safety and health. It notes challenges like job insecurity, lack of employer responsibilities for safety, and individualization of work increasing isolation. Platforms make regulation difficult as they are new, transnational organizations. Possible solutions discussed include challenging independent contractor classifications, creating new employment categories, and virtual social security for platform workers. Overall more research is needed on platform work's impacts and ensuring basic protections for workers.

1. The consequences of platform
economy on occupational
safety and health
Pauli Forma
Presentation at Nordic Work Life Conference 2018
pauli.forma@ttl.fi / @paufor

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Background
• Human beings have always needed and searched for shelter and
security against social risks such as poverty, sickness, work
accidents and old age.
• Our modern solution for security in this sense has been the welfare
state.
• In this context, the government, the employers and the
employees have had their own rights and responsibilities.
• However, platform economy challenges present ways to organize
security in our societies.
• Rights and responsibilities are under reconsideration.
• There has been some discussion related to financial security but
issues related to occupational safety and health have not yet been
widely on the agenda.

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Discussions on platform economy and the
future of work
Negative extremity
• ”Race to the bottom”
• ”Work life back to years before industrialism”
• Temporary jobs, no safety net
• The rich own the platforms, only bad jobs to the the poor
• Small salaries, no social security, long working hours
• Uncertainty and tight (global) competition
Positive extremity
• Platformworkers are the CEO’s of their own lifes
• Freedom, self determination
• Possibility to innovate and be creative, more
possibilities
• The workers may work less and receive more leisure

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Current perspective to security and
safety
Challenges
Work Income, social security
(unemployment benefits, pensions
etc.)
More insecurity in the labour market, less jobs
and harsher global competition, lower quality
of jobs
Employers Responsibilities forced by
legislation to guarantee security
and safety
Platforms are not employers, they do not
have similar responsibilities
Employees Collective power in claiming
security and safety
Employees are ”contractors”, Changing and
diminishing role of the trade unions, weaker
rights for the employees
Government Social security, regulation in
different areas of working life (OSH)
Erosion of the tax-base, no means to control
global platforms and guarantee security and
safety with regulation
Challenges to security and safety in the context of
platform economy

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Challenges from the perspective of occupational
safety and health
• Safety and health at work
• The aim of OSH is to prevent, reduce and eradicate
workplace accidents, occupational diseases and physically
and psychologically harmful stress.
• Policy dealing with occupational safety and health and
wellbeing in the workplace also aim to:
• reduce incidents of sick leave
• cut the risk of permanent work incapacity
• develop good working conditions
• maintain work and functional capacity.
Source: Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in Finland.
In all these areas,
the role of the
government,
employers and
employees is
substantial

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Platform work and risks related to OSH 1/2
1. Fear of job loss, insecurity -> stress, health effects
2. Difficulties in controlling working time, blurring line between work and leisure (work-
family conflict)
3. Lack of occupational health care
4. Individualization of work and isolation (leadership and teamwork have a role in
protection)
5. Income inequality may fuel health disparities
6. Stress due to continuous evaluation, competition and rating of performance
7. Psycho-social risks include also technostress, technology addiction, information
overload, cyber-bullying.

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Platform work and risks related to OSH 2/2
• Preventive measures for OSH are more comprehensive and
effective in workplaces with more employees: lone workers and
workers who work at home are risk-groups.
• Platform workers are younger, which is a independent risk factor
for occupational injury and they are also less likely to undergo
OSH training.
• Lack of training in general increases the risk of accidents
• Platform work bases on inter-worker competition and rating
mechanisms, which encourages rapid pace of work without
brakes, which may induce accidents.
• Paying per assignments adds also time pressure.

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• Temporary nature of the jobs
• Autonomy of the workers
• Informal nature of work-activities
• Individualism – workers do not know each other
• High turnover among the employees
• Working via platform may be considered not as a
primary professional activity
• Workers compete with each others
Why platforms are difficult to regulate? 1/2

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1. Platforms are moving targets, “grow first and ask compliance
questions later”
2. Platform companies are new and unprecedented organizations
3. Companies argue that they are simply intermediaries or “digital
bulletin boards”
4. Platforms are transnational organizations.
5. However, also possibilities in avoiding shadow economy.
Why platforms are difficult to regulate? 2/2

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Possible improvements or solutions
• Some gig-economy companies have adopted traditional employer-employee
model (because of liability, control, quality)
• Challenging the designation of workers as independent contractors as illegal
misclassification (a lot of law-suits currently ongoing)
• Creating new categories of employment (e.g. “dependent contractors” or “flexible
workers”) and introducing rights related to them
• Attempts to mobilize the interests of the gig-workers (e.g. Uber-drivers)
• Introducing of new types of safety nets for the gig-workers (individual accounts for
the workers -> “virtual global social security” )
• Inserting transparency and the voice of the workers in the processes
Source: Tran, M. and Sokas R.M. 2017.

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Final remarks
• It is crucial, how big share out of the employees work for platforms in the future: 3-4 percent out of
the workforce in the developed countries are working on the platforms (Codagnone et al. 2016; Huws
et al. 2016).
• All the platforms are not global, since production of some services demand local and physical
presence, national legislation may still be effective when it comes to domestic platforms
• It seems evident that own responsibility of the employees will be bigger in the future in the area of
OSH
• International co-operation is needed when it comes to global platforms
• It is essential to think, which could be the incentives for the platforms to provide security to their
contractors? (do the platforms want to be good “employers”?)
• The role of the government is still accurate when it comes to last resort security and safety in the
society

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Sources
European Agency of Health and Safety at Work 2017. Protecting Workers in the Online Platform Economy: An overview of
regulatory and policy developments in the EU. European Risk Observatory Discussion paper.
Codagnone, C. & Abadie, F. & Biagi, F. 2016. The Future of Work in the “Sharing Economy”: Market Efficiency and Equitavle
Opportunities of Unfair Precarisation?, JRC Science for Policy Report EUR 27913 EN, Seville: Institute for Prospective
Technological Studies.
Huws, U & Spencer, N.H. & Joyce, S. 2016. Crowd Work in Europe. Preliminary Results from a survey in the UK, Sweden,
Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, Brussels: FEBS Studies.
Sundararajan, A. 2016. The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise ogf Crowd-based Capitalism,
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Tran, M. and Sokas, R. 2017. “The gig economy and contingent work: An occupational health assessment”, Journal of
Occupational and Environmental Medicine 59 (2017), 63-66.
Seppänen, L., Hasu, M., Käpykangas, S., & Poutanen, S. (2018, in press). On-demand work in platform economy: implications
for sustainable development. Proceedings of the 20th Congress of International Ergonomics Association "Creativity in
practice", Florence, Italy, August 2018. Springer.