Category: News

“COVID-19: The devastating impact of a health and economic crisis on those operating in the informal economy”: 

This policy brief from ILO, discusses how the informal sector worldwide has been affected by the pandemic. You can have a look at it at the following link 

https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_protect/—protrav/—travail/documents/briefingnote/wcms_743623.pdf  

Gig workers – employed or self-employed? 

The fight to regulate the position of gig workers in the labor market may be slow, but it´s starting to shape across several countries. Here you can read more of ongoing discussions and what has been recently ruled out in Italy, Spain, France during this year.   

“Riders, the ongoing debate about delivery workers in the wake of the Covid-19 emergency”  

https://www.morningfuture.com/en/article/2020/07/20/riders-workers-essential-covid/970/

“Spanish Supreme Court rules food-delivery riders are employees, not self-employed”  

https://english.elpais.com/economy_and_business/2020-09-24/spanish-supreme-court-rules-food-delivery-riders-are-employees.html

“France Considers New Protections for Gig Worker ‘Invisibles’”  

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-16/france-considers-new-protections-for-gig-worker-invisibles

Recruitment of non-standard workers:

We are ready to start the recruitment of non-standard workers and those workers that are unemployed due to covid-19. Each of the participating countries (Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Chile, USA and Canada) will share during the upcoming days the questionnaire within their network. Let´s try to reach as many people as possible, so everyone is encouraged to share the questionnaire within your own network.   

“The experiences of health-care providers during the COVID-19 crisis in China: a qualitative study” Qian Liu et al. (2020):

This qualitative study uses an empirical phenomenological approach to describe the experiences of health care providers recruited from five COVID-19-designated hospitals in Hubei province. Link: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(20)30204-7/fulltext?utm_campaign=update-langlo&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=88693030&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–anvuBKARoiRybVc02Frg9x_PdqI4Hvvh85XLA-2XElHtyGgu6cvQz0u4UmmWAGG7iyqn1e8pnzygibG6za-5uiOBySIc4LWNpsi_7DT1hqtl5eWc&utm_content=88693030&utm_source=hs_email  

“Google Rescinds Offers to Thousands of Contract Workers”:

Google, facing an advertising slump caused by the pandemic, has rescinded offers to several thousand people who had agreed to work at the company as temporary and contract workers, affecting more than 2,000 people globally. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/29/technology/google-rescinds-job-offers-to-contract-workers.html  

“The COVID-19 pandemic: lessons on building more equal and sustainable societies”

Barneveld et al. (2020): in this discussion paper the focus is held on the pandemic’s disastrous worldwide health impacts And on how the flow-on economic impacts have simultaneously created major supply and demand disruptions, and highlighted the growing within country inequalities and precarity generated by neoliberal regimes of labour market regulation. Link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1035304620927107  

“Labour market change: trends and policy approaches towards flexibilization” 

Eurofound (2020): This flagship report addresses trends and policy developments in relation to the flexibilisation of employment in the EU between 2008 and 2018. Labour markets in the EU are diversifying in terms of working time patterns and the nature of employment relationships. This report was researched and produced before the onset of the COVID-19 virus. A limited number of key messages and policy pointers have been added on the basis of the findings which could be useful for policymakers as they seek to address the range of issues which will emerge in the aftermath of the pandemic.  

Understanding the health and safety implications of the gig economy:

This British study focusing on who gig workers are, performed a literature review focusing on both traditional academic papers and also reputable publications in the so called “grey literature”. Here you can find the pdf: https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr1143.pdf

The DE-grading Epidemiology (DEEP) Network: 

If interested, join the DEEP network. The network aims at encouraging open debate about the use of algorithms to assess epidemiological studies, and maintain contacts between those of us who are working on these issues. You can join DEEP at the following link: https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres-projects-groups/degrading-epidemiology-network