Unions have a key role to play in giving a voice (and rendering visible) migrant workers, through organising them and helping them develop the confidence that comes from collective strength, but also ensuring that workers be active participants in all processes, such as certification. Certification ensures that the process of collective bargaining is formalised; a union can certify a group of employees for this purpose and bargain on their behalf.
This Reshaping Work Onward event, organized by the Global Labour University, created a space for open engagement on the complex challenges facing migrants, trade unions and activists. This report represents a selective overview of the discussions that took place at the event as well as a window into creative reflections that can help revitalise trade unions.
Key words: migrant workers, unions, representation, labour law, social protection
How does the experience of platform workers compare among workers in Argentina, the Netherlands, and India? How many gig workers rely on multiple applications to generate full-time income? What is the median monthly wage on different platforms and across countries? The report presents discussions on these topics as well as large-scale survey results, exclusively presented and debated at Reshaping Work Onward event (October 23, 2020), organized by WageIndicator Foundation. The event brought 150+ leading academics, policymakers, and advocates from a dozen countries, including India, South Africa, the Netherlands, Spain, and Argentina.
Platform workers, gig economy, labour law, data governance, cross-country differences
The following report is based on the discussions that took place at Reshaping Work Onward event on 23 September 2020, which was organized by Open Society Foundations in collaboration with Cornell University. The purpose of this interactive virtual event was to convene diverse stakeholders to share insights and brainstorm ways forward to better address decent work in the digital economy, particularly with respect to platforms that provide ‘gig’ work. The conference brought 70 leading academics, policymakers, and advocates from a dozen countries, including South Africa, Brazil, India, the US, UK, and Mexico, to discuss and debate these challenges. Therefore, this report synthesizes the discussions that took place and serves as an inspiration for important challenges faced by policy makers.
Platform economy, competition policy, data governance, social protection, platform workers