Over the last decade, there has been a growing attention and concern
about the overall impact of major digital capitalist platforms on the labour
market (Srnicek 2016, Berg et al. 2019). Digital labor has been studied
from various perspectives: focusing on the tasks and the relation to
automatization and AI, the value creation, surveillance and algorithmic
management, the differences within cloud and gig work, working
conditions and activism (Casilli, 2019; Fuchs and Sandoval, 2014;
Abeldelnour and Meda 2019).
There is a wide heterogeneity of working conditions and inequality among
the workforce (depending on the qualifications, contracts, and income)
and across countries (diverse regulations of the labor market, presence of
workers’ unions, and the state of social protection). Recently, in many
countries, scholars have highlighted the unfair working conditions of the
riders of delivery platforms, whose relevance has grown since the
Covid-19 pandemic. Platform delivery workers are exposed to many risks
and most of them are self-contractors without minimum wage and an
appropriate social protection (Huang 2021; Fairwork, 2020; Schreyer,
2021; Srnec and Gossart, 2022). In many cases, the platform economy
has made it possible to globalize insecure jobs using apps, and its
flexibility often comes with vulnerability.
This paper will examine the working conditions and the access to social
protection of riders in France during the sanitary crisis of 2020/2021. The
research questions that guided this work are: What are the social
protection needs of riders? Who and how is covered by the social security
system? What are the most vulnerable profiles of workers?
We have conducted a research project during 2020-2021 to evaluate the
social protection access and needs of platform riders in France. Our
methodology has combined qualitative and quantitative methods: we have
applied an online survey, face-to face semi-directed interviews and
observations in 3 different cities. In this paper we will argue that the
uberization phenomenon affects workers differently. Our results present a
typology of vulnerability of riders that shows the segmentation of the
precariousness that affects riders.The vulnerability of a rider depends on
the risks to which he is exposed during work and to the social protection
he has considering his professional situation (studies, professional
experience, revenues), family and origins.
The evidence from this study suggests that a set of complementary
regulations are needed to contribute to the well-being and social
protection of riders. Its precariousness is linked to social issues, labor
regulation but also to the unrestrained expansion of the platform
economy.

Link: https://sase.confex.com/sase/2022/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/20546