Platform Work in Georgia
di Giorgi Amiranashvili
Abstract
Lo scopo di questo contributo è discutere lo stato attuale del lavoro sulle piattaforme in Georgia. Nella prima parte viene evidenziato quanto sia diffuso il lavoro su piattaforma. La seconda parte si concentra sui tipi di lavoro su piattaforma online. La terza parte fornisce una panoramica del lavoro in piattaforma nella pratica. La quarta parte richiama un’attenzione particolare sullo status dei lavoratori delle piattaforme. Le due parti successive sono dedicate a una discussione sulle principali sfide e opportunità nella gig economy, anche dopo il Covid-19. Il contributo si conclude con alcune considerazioni finali.
New forms of employment, such as the digital platform economy, have emerged in various industries and professions around the world. It includes work arrangements where workers identify and implement short-term one-time assignments through online platforms.
Although some of these jobs may offer greater flexibility to workers, they can also lead to major gaps in social protection. This is mainly explained by the fact that in many cases new forms of employment are found in “atypical” forms, such as part-time or temporary work, with fuzzy lines between genuine and dependent self-employment.
The platform workers do not have a formal employer because the platform management considers them “partners” rather than “employees”. Consequently, these workers do not receive regular pay and, more importantly, they cannot enjoy the social and labour rights guaranteed by labour law. For that reason, most workers on the platform have less job security and income, poor working conditions, and substantial deficits in social protection in comparison with workers in standard forms of employment. As a result, the literature focuses on modifying existing social protection systems to better address the needs of platform workers.
The number of platform workers has grown in Georgia over the past few years, with companies such as “Glovo”, “Bolt”, “Wolt” and other related platform companies entering the local market. There is a lack of research in Georgia on the profile of workers employed by such enterprises and the lack of information about their social, economic, or educational background. At the same time, there are few academic or political discussions about gaps in their social security coverage and the need to adjust social protection systems to the needs of such workers.
The aim of this paper is to discuss the current state of platform work in Georgia. The paper begins by presenting how prevalent is platform work. The second part of this paper focuses on types of online platform work. The third part of the paper provides an overview of platform work in practice. The fourth part of this paper draws special attention to the status of platform workers. The next two parts of the paper are devoted to a discussion of key challenges and opportunities in gig economy, including after Covid-19. The paper concludes with some final remarks.