The effects of the pandemic on gig economy couriers in Argentina and Chile: Precarity, algorithmic control and mobilization

In: International labour review, Band 161, Heft 3, S. 441-461

Abstract

AbstractThis article analyses the effects of the pandemic on the work process at two digital delivery platforms operating in Argentina and Chile: Rappi and PedidosYa. Using semi‐structured interviews and an analysis of the press and websites, it looks at how the platforms have shifted the costs of the crisis to workers by leveraging the independent contractor status and tightening control. In response, the couriers have mounted various types of resistance, ranging from renting out or loaning accounts to organizing international strikes.