A sociological analysis of unions and the Maltese gig economy

Abstract

The gig economy has within it platforms which mediate supply and demand through a digital interface, where individuals providing a service to the consumer, are paid per completed task without the existence of any employment relationship. The platform is never an employer and thus has no tangible assets concerning the type of service it mediates. Instead, workers are either self-employed or outsourced by an agency (commonly being third-country nationals). Arguments and criticism have risen against the status of ‘self-employed’ for various reasons, such as the worker’s dependence on the platform. A primary concern though has to do with outsourcing agencies, which previous studies have shown workers employed on illegal contracts followed by illegal activity, such as extracting 50% of income from the worker along with other illegalities. Despite limited intervention by the state and other social partners, most agencies are still noticed operating irregularly, and this is due to a lack of government enforcement of guidelines recommended by the Department of Industrial and Employment Relations. A qualitative study was conducted to understand the unions’ and the Chamber of SMEs’ positions on the gig economy, the specific efforts made by unions, if any, to represent gig workers, and the difficulties in doing so. Findings have shown; that the model of the gig economy is a hindrance in itself for workers to organise as it constructs for the worker an individualistic worker identity – by which a collective identity of a collective workforce is non-conceptual. Furthermore, with regards to representation and regulation, sufficient pressure on the government by the unions to enforce regulation was not visible.