When your manager is an app: Who has the responsibility of the Health and Safety of young workers in the platform economy?

Abstract

In 2021 the health and safety at Nemlig. com made headlines in Denmark. During the same period the European Commission focused on employment conditions and regulation of digital work platforms, and the Danish Minister of Employment stated that there must be “orderly conditions” in all parts of the Danish labour market. This article explores how young platform workers experience employment relations and responsibility for Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) in the platform economy. The study is based on 14 qualitative interviews with Danish young workers (age 18-30) who find work through digital work platforms. In the analysis of the data material, Rasmussen’s classic risk model “drift to danger model” is used (Rasmussen, 1997). The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work assert that the placement of responsibilities for OSH in the platform economy is challenged by the unclear categorisations of employers, employees and self-employed, and that existing labour law and OSH legislation might be inapplicable. Even though platforms position workers as self-employed, the study shows that the young workers rarely perceive themselves as being self-employed and assume that the platforms take care of OSH. When operating in a grey zone between employees and self-employed, the young platform workers risk being left without protection and societal resources for improving their safety and health at work.