Segmented precariousness of digital platform's workers

Over the last decade, there has been a growing attention and concern about the overall impact of major digital capitalist platforms on the labour market (Srnicek 2016, Berg et al. 2019). Digital labor has been studied from various perspectives: focusing on the tasks and the relation to automatization and AI, the value creation, surveillance and algorithmic management, the differences within cloud and gig work, working conditions and activism (Casilli, 2019; Fuchs and Sandoval, 2014; Abeldelnour and Meda 2019). There is a wide heterogeneity of working conditions and inequality among the workforce (depending on the qualifications, contracts, and income) and across countries (diverse regulations of the labor market, presence of workers' unions, and the state of social protection). Recently, in many countries, scholars have highlighted the unfair working conditions of the riders of delivery platforms, whose relevance has grown since the Covid-19 pandemic. Platform delivery workers are exposed to many risks and most of them are self-contractors without minimum wage and an appropriate social protection (Huang 2021; Fairwork, 2020; Schreyer, 2021; Srnec and Gossart, 2022). In many cases, the platform economy has made it possible to globalize insecure jobs using apps, and its flexibility often comes with vulnerability. This paper will examine the working conditions and the access to social protection of riders in France during the sanitary crisis of 2020/2021. The research questions that guided this work are: What are the social protection needs of riders? Who and how is covered by the social security system? What are the most vulnerable profiles of workers? We have conducted a research project during 2020-2021 to evaluate the social protection access and needs of platform riders in France. Our methodology has combined qualitative and quantitative methods: we have applied an online survey, face-to face semi-directed interviews and observations in 3 different cities. In this paper we will argue that the uberization phenomenon affects workers differently. Our results present a typology of vulnerability of riders that shows the segmentation of the precariousness that affects riders.The vulnerability of a rider depends on the risks to which he is exposed during work and to the social protection he has considering his professional situation (studies, professional experience, revenues), family and origins. The evidence from this study suggests that a set of complementary regulations are needed to contribute to the well-being and social protection of riders. Its precariousness is linked to social issues, labor regulation but also to the unrestrained expansion of the platform economy.