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Artificial Intelligence (AI) : Multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy

The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business

This article evaluates the job quality of work in the remote gig economy. Such work consists of the remote provision of a wide variety of digital services mediated by online labour platforms. Focusing on workers in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, the article draws on semi-structured interviews in six countries (N = 107) and a cross-regional survey (N = 679) to detail the manner in which remote gig work is shaped by platform-based algorithmic control. Despite varying country contexts and types of work, we show that algorithmic control is central to the operation of online labour platforms. Algorithmic management techniques tend to offer workers high levels of flexibility, autonomy, task variety and complexity. However, these mechanisms of control can also result in low pay, social isolation, working unsocial and irregular hours, overwork, sleep deprivation and exhaustion.

/pdf/good-gig-bad-gig-autonomy-and-algorithmic-control-in-the-3v2ih5tuvy.pdf

Good Gig, Bad Gig: Autonomy and Algorithmic Control in the Global Gig Economy:

The widespread implementation of algorithmic technologies in organizations prompts questions about how algorithms may reshape organizational control. We use Edwards’ (1979) perspective of “conteste...

Algorithms at Work: The New Contested Terrain of Control

The sharing economy and digital platforms: A review and research agenda

The so-called “gig-economy” has been growing exponentially in numbers and importance in recent years but its impact on labour rights has been largely overlooked. Forms of work in the “gig-economy” include “crowdwork”, and “work-on-demand via apps”, under which the demand and supply of working activities is matched online or via mobile apps. These forms of work can provide a good match of job opportunities and allow flexible working schedules. However, they can also pave the way to a severe commodification of work. This paper discusses the implications of this commodification and advocates the full recognition of activities in the gig-economy as “work”.

/pdf/the-rise-of-the-just-in-time-workforce-on-demand-work-3z74p8d84v.pdf

The rise of the 'just-in-time workforce': On-demand work, crowdwork and labour protection in the 'gig-economy'

The so-called “gig-economy” has been growing exponentially in numbers and importance in recent years but its impact on labour rights has been largely overlooked. Forms of work in the “gig-economy” include “crowdwork”, and “work- on-demand via apps”, under which the demand and supply of working activities is matched online or via mobile apps. These forms of work can provide a good match of job opportunities and allow flexible working schedules. However, they can also pave the way to a severe commodification of work. This paper discusses the implications of this commodification and advocates the full recognition of activities in the gig-economy as “work”.

The rise of the "just-in-time workforce": on-demand work, crowdwork and labour protection in the "gig-economy"

This paper aims at filling some gaps in the mainstream debate on automation, the introduction of new technologies at the workplace and the future of work. This debate has concentrated, so far, on how many jobs will be lost as a consequence of technological innovation. This paper examines instead issues related to the quality of jobs in future labour markets. It addresses the detrimental effects on workers of awarding legal capacity and rights and obligation to robots. It examines the implications of practices such as People Analytics and the use of big data and artificial intelligence to manage the workforce. It stresses on an oft-neglected feature of the contract of employment, namely the fact that it vests the employer with authority and managerial prerogatives over workers. It points out that a vital function of labour law is to limit these authority and prerogatives to protect the human dignity of workers. In light of this, it argues that even if a Universal Basic Income were introduced, the existence of managerial prerogatives would still warrant the existence of labour regulation since this regulation is about much more than protecting workers’ income. It then highlights the benefits of human-rights based approaches to labour regulation to protect workers’ privacy against invasive electronic monitoring. It concludes by highlighting the crucial role of collective regulation and social partners in governing automation and the impact of technology at the workplace. It stresses that collective dismissal regulation and the involvement of workers’ representatives in managing and preventing job losses is crucial and that collective actors should actively participate in the governance of technology-enhanced management systems, to ensure a vital “human-in-command” approach.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID3408253_code1192939.pdf?abstractid=3178233&mirid=1&type=2

‘Negotiating the Algorithm’: Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Labour Protection

Digital transformation and the reorganization of the firm have given rise to new forms of work that diverge significantly from the standard employment relationship. Advocates of digital disruption suggest that the existing legal framework cannot accommodate “innovative” working templates and business models. This article, however, argues that labour regulation can continue to facilitate innovation, presenting the employment relationship as a flexible instrument, and standard forms of employment as the means of achieving efficiencies and cost advantages. First, they allow for the full exercise of managerial prerogative and attendant internal flexibility in workforce deployment, and, second, they constitute an effective device to deliver training and develop skills.

/pdf/regulation-and-the-future-of-work-the-employment-3s3hj48hrw.pdf

Regulation and the future of work: The employment relationship as an innovation facilitator

The Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal is publishing a collection of papers on the gig-economy and labor law, edited by Valerio De Stefano (International Labour Office and Bocconi University). This collection, entitled “Crowdsourcing, the Gig-Economy and the Law”, gathers contributions from several labour lawyers and social scientists to provide a comprehensive analytical overview of work in the gig-economy, testing the validity of several assumptions underlying the general debate on platform-based work, and advancing policy options for labour and social protection of this work. Contributing authors are Antonio Aloisi, Janine Berg, Miriam Cherry, Valerio De Stefano, Matt Finkin, Lili Irani, Jeremias Prassl, Martin Risak, and Six Silberman. This article introduces this collection and gives an overview of the issues discussed by the authors.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2767383_code1192939.pdf?abstractid=2767383&mirid=5

Valerio De Stefano

Papers

The rise of the 'just-in-time workforce': On-demand work, crowdwork and labour protection in the 'gig-economy'

The rise of the "just-in-time workforce": on-demand work, crowdwork and labour protection in the "gig-economy"

‘Negotiating the Algorithm’: Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Labour Protection

Regulation and the future of work: The employment relationship as an innovation facilitator

Introduction: Crowdsourcing, the Gig-Economy and the Law