a brighter future of work Shingo Miyake Labour Law and - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

11TH ILO MEETING OF CARIBBEAN MINISTERS OF LABOUR

Adapting institutions for a brighter future of work

Shingo Miyake

Labour Law and International Labour Standards Specialist Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean

In this presentation

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Emerging forms of work

1. Telework 2. Platform work (crowdwork) 3. Zero hours contracts

Impact on institutions

• Labour laws
• Employment contracts
• Collective agreements
• Labour administration
• Employers’ & workers’
• rganizations

Responses

• Laws and regulations
• Collective agreements
• Company practices
• Advocacy

etc

Telework: What is it?

• Telework = work performed away from other

employees and offices, using various ICT for virtual presence.

• Home office, mobile office, virtual office, etc.
• Telework is about modality of work
• A worker may telework full-time, part-time or occasionally
• Statistically, teleworkers may be classified as salaried workers
• r dependent contractors (their normal place of work)

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Teleworkers (workers in employment for pay)

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Country % of workforce Frequency Stat date UK 4.3% Mainly work from home more than 3 days/week 2009 USA 2.8% of workforce or 3.7 million workers Working from home at least half of the time 2014 EU 1.7% 7% Almost full-time At least a quarter of the time 2005

Benefits, challenges, Impacts

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Employers Workers

Benefits

• Reduced overheads
• Lower turnover
• Reduced commuting

time/costs

• Higher autonomy
• Improved work-life

balance

Challenges  Increased IT

demands

• Security issues
• Not for all tasks
• Some loss of control
• Blurring work–life

boundaries

• Working on holiday
• Social and professional

isolation

Impact on institutions

• Laws, contracts, CAs
• Definitions of working

time

• Sound workplace
• Labour administration
• Difficulty in inspection
• EOs and WO
• Difficulty in organizing

workers

• Wellbeing of workers

Responses – U.S. Telework Enhancement Act

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Main Examples (see www.telework.gov) Policy

• Office of Personnel Management telework guidance

Most pay conditions are the same as regular workers, but night pay will not apply, etc.

Written agreement

• Department of Defence

Hours of work, reporting to office, overtime, handling classified documents, supervision, applicable rules, alternative worksite info, etc.

Training programmes

• Training for managers and employees

Potential benefits, teleworker skills, necessary tools, etc.

• FAQs

Who is eligible? How do I know an employee is really working at home?

Part of a continuity of

• perations plan
• USAID Continuity of Operations Plan

Telework Managing Officer assists the Continuity Coordinator and Manger to develop an unscheduled telework strategy.

Responses – Collective agreements

• European Framework Agreement (by social partners)
• Teleworking is voluntary
• Same rights to employment conditions and collective rights
• The employer’s duty in data protection, equipment, OSH
• Teleworkers manage own working time within applicable rules
• Same performance standards as comparable office workers
• Equal access to training and career development

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Responses – Company programmes

• KBC Bank (Belgium)
• Satellite offices are created in administrative buildings of the bank closer to

employees’ homes. Laptops and mobile phones, and other equipment is provided.

• Home-based teleworkers are also allowed, but they have to be at the office

for at least three days a week. Telework is not possible for those who work less than 70% of a full-time job.

• ILO
• Telework is available to both internationally and locally recruited officials
• Both occasional and regular teleworking is possible.
• Equipment and facilities (e.g. access to ILO network) is provided to regular

teleworkers.

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Platform work: Work on platforms

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Type Examples Name Professional services Translation, design, software development, market research, data analysis, customer service Upwork Microtasking Microtasks = specific tasks that can be done in short time

• Checking address data
• Identifying certain contents in an image
• Analysis of voice recordings
• Advertisement checks in Cinemas
• Survey on shopping experience

Amazon Mechanical Turk, Clickworker, Streetspotr Accommodation Help users to find accommodation and help property owner to be known to users Airbnb, Booking.com Transportation Transportation of passengers Uber, Lyft Delivery of goods Some companies offer pickup service as well. Deliveroo, Uber Eats (meal), Postmaktes (groceries, meal) Household services

Tasks from small (e.g. picking up cleaning) to more substantive (e.g. child care, housekeeping, home improvement)

Taskrabbit, care.com, Handy

Principal platforms and apps

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Name Field Workforce Operation Uber Transportation 160,000 International Lyft Transportation 50,000 U.S. Sidecar Transportation 6000 Major U.S. Cities Handy Home Services 5000 U.S. Taskrabbit Home Services 30,000 International Care.com Home Services 6,600,000 International Postmates Delivery 10,000 U.S. Amazon Mechanical Turk Crowdwork 500,000 International Crowdflower Crowdwork 5,000,000 International Crowdsource Crowdwork 8,000,000 International Clickworker Crowdwork 700,000 International

What is platform? How does it function?

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Various functions:

• Registration of customers & service

providers

• Matchmaking
• Suggestions, recommendations
• Marketplace

Source: els-cdn.com

Service/products may be requested:

• To crowd anywhere in the world

through an open call (crowdwork)

• e.g. Translation done through Upwork
• To individuals in a specific geographical

area (location-based)

• e.g. Uber

Impact on labour institutions

Institution Impact Issues

Labour laws, contracts

• Employment

relationship

• Working conditions
• Is a platform an employer? Is a platform worker an

employee, an independent/dependent contractor?

• Unclear working hours, entitlements (sick leave, holidays,

maternity/paternity)

• Income insecurity

Labour admin

• Social protection
• OSH
• Inspection
• Social protection, OSH: Responsibilities shifted to workers
• How to inspect?

CAs Collective bargaining

• Practical possibility of associating is reduced

EOs and WOs

• “Human-as-a-

service” Division of work and work programmes

• Workers called at a click or a tap
• Representativity of these workers
• Career development
• Unfair competition (tax, informality, sourcing of workers)

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Responses

Institution Response

Labour laws, contracts

• California Labour Commissioner recognized that a driver was an employee of Uber.
• France – El Khomri Law (France): If the platform determines the characteristics of the

service, it is responsible for OSH and training. CAs

• Collective agreement between union 3F and cleaning service platform Hilfr sets minimum

pay, holiday pay, pension, sick pay. EOs and WOs

• IG Metall is a German union that covers, among others, crowd- and platform-based
• workers. It offers an insurance for legal costs in cases of legal disputes with clients.
• Code of Conduct on paid crowdsourcing, signed by platforms. Parties commit to inform

workers relevant legal and tax regulations, pay fair wage, motivate workers with e.g. awards or training, provide clear tasks and reasonable timing, freedom to choose tasks, regulate approval process, and protect workers’ privacy. “Ombuds office” for enforcement and dispute resolution

• Fair Crowd Work: Information hub on platform work managed by unions. It collects reviews
• f platforms.
• The Frankfurt Declaration (2016) calls for transnational cooperation among stakeholders.

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Zero hours contracts: What is it?

• Contractual arrangements centred on the absence of

guaranteed hours for the worker (“no guaranteed hours contracts”) – no universal legal treatment

• Based on ILO’s new statistical classification, they are casual

employees (no guaranteed hours of work)

• They may or may not work for other employers (exclusivity)
• Benefits in light of regular workers

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Zero hours contract: Prevalence in Europe

Allowed Allowed, heavily regulated Not generally allowed Not used / rare

Cyprus Finland Ireland Malta Norway Sweden United Kingdom Germany Italy Netherlands Slovakia Austria Belgium Czech Republic Estonia France Ireland Lithuania Luxembourg New Zealand (total) Bulgaria Croatia Denmark Hungary Poland Romania Slovenia Spain

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Benefits and challenges

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Employers Workers

Potential benefits

• Flexible engagement of workers
• Minimized costs and overheads
• Greater say over when and how

much they work

Potential challenges

• Worker availability
• Quality and productivity of

workforce

• undermining of staff morale and

trust

• “Exclusivity clauses” may force

them to take unwanted jobs (fear of losing job)

• Income instability
• Renting, loans and mortgages
• Lack of training
• Limited career development

Impact on labour institutions

Institution Impact Issues

Labour laws, contracts Status of workers

• Exclusivity clauses – Lack of flexibility for workers and their

income insecurity

• No obligation on employers to provide work – How to

understand this “relationship”? Labour admin

• Social protection
• OSH
• Uncertain employment status - How to enrol in pension?
• Financial instability - More likely to receive governing benefits
• How to ensure safety and health?

CAs

• Irregular and

individualized workers

• How to promote association?
• How to bargain for them?

EOs and WOs

• Management
• Quality, productivity, and

morale of workforce

• Flexibility must not lead to poor management

(eg notification of work)

• How to achieve quality workforce (training, career dev)?
• How to achieve work-life balance?

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Responses

Institution Issues

Labour laws, contracts

• United Kingdom – laws and regulations
• Exclusivity clauses now unenforceable.
• Zero-hours workers must not be penalized for not complying with exclusivity.
• National minimum wage apply to zero hours work, including travel time, and stand-

by/on-call/downtime if they are required to be at their workplace.

• Australia: Additional pay of 15-25% of hourly rate, minimum engagement periods
• Ireland: Employers compensate for employees called in and then sent home without work
• Finland: Employers can propose variable working hours only if they have a variable need

for labour and the minimum hours of work cannot be lower than their actual need. ZHC workers are entitled to sick pay. EOs and WOs

• TUC (UK): Advocacy for written terms and conditions on expected hours, sufficient notice
• f work availability and cancellations, better pay for flexibility and increased financial risk
• Institute of Directors (UK): Advice to look at offering permanent contracts where

appropriate

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Conclusion: Old and new issues

• Information technology may make these forms new indeed.
• Software-based - wider reach across countries, rapid replication
• Familiar issues
• Uncertain definition of terms in law
• Uncertain benefits, entitlements and working conditions
• Precarious employment – income insecurity, work-life balance
• Lack of training and career development
• Difficult to inspect
• Difficult to organize and represent by employers’ and workers’
• rganizations

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Way forward for institutions

Institution Way forward

Labour laws

• Adapt relevant definitions to cover new workers
• Provisions on their rights and duties (in light of regular workers)
• Adapt provisions on rights and duties of employers
• Guidance on implementation

Employment contracts

• Model contracts

Labour admin

• Petition or complaint mechanism
• Law may set out certain conditions that allow labour inspection
• Administrative reform

Collective agreements

• Regional framework agreement that would help national agreements

Employers’ and workers’ organizations

• Effort to organize and represent these workers and platforms
• Code of conduct/practice
• Information sharing hub
• Sample company policies and programmes

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