Domestic work and the gig economy

The provision of cleaning, childcare and other housework through online platforms is an increasingly important sector. This chapter identifies key challenges domestic work in the gig economy creates for workers' rights protections and proposes an agenda for future research. It argues that well-documented risks of the gig economy model such as lack of security and denial of employment rights tend to exacerbate pre-existing shortcomings in the regulation of domestic work, while platforms provide new mechanisms for the surveillance and control of workers. The longstanding devaluation of domestic work as manifested in the gig economy is then analysed, with reference to uncertain hours and segmentation of women into low-paid roles. The chapter further considers constraints on collective bargaining in domestic work and the gig economy, discussing two rare examples of collective agreements with domestic work platforms and highlighting the importance of universalist legal protection of workers' rights and freedom of association.