Abstract
This thesis analyses the exclusion of platform workers in the European Union (EU) from accessing collective labour rights and discusses how using a republican approach of freedom as non-domination helps to understand and address such exclusion.After exploring what is the platform economy and platform work, this thesis contends that the exclusion of platform workers from access to collective labour rights in the EU has been possible due to the power of platforms to set the terms and conditions of work for platform workers, including the determination of platform workers’ employment status, which is the gateway for accessing many labour rights in the EU, including collective labour rights. Such exclusion is reinforced by platforms’ capacity to harness norms and practices favourable to their idea of platform work, such as EU competition law.
This thesis contends that the injustice arising from the exclusion of platform workers from access to collective labour rights in the EU can helpfully be understood using the republican idea of freedom as non-domination. Freedom as non-domination goes beyond a negative account of freedom as non-interference upon which EU labour law is built and a positive account of freedom as autonomy to focus on how some exercise arbitrary interference in the choices of others.
This thesis finishes by exploring recent EU initiatives to ensure platform workers' access to collective labour rights. It advocates for expanding one of these initiatives using the republican idea of freedom as non-domination while broadening boundaries of labour law based on whether working people have the tools to contest the power of their employing counterparties.
| Date of Award | 24 Jan 2023 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
|
| Supervisor | Tonia A Novitz (Supervisor) & Philip A J Syrpis (Supervisor) |