The Impact of Digital Employment Platforms on the Transformation of the Labor Market in the Digital Economy

Abstract

Labor markets worldwide lag behind the rapid changes in the world economy. The ineffectiveness of these changes is shown through millions of people struggling with unemployment, underemployment, and insufficient earnings, not being able to find employment even with many job openings. The digital economy, which has an increasing impact on the world labor market, offers new opportunities to solve employment problems. Among these opportunities, it is important to point out digital labor platforms. The global community is entering the epoch of the digital platform economy. Platform employment is becoming more and more widespread; it can be termed a new institutional mechanism in the labor market. Platform employment has already significantly changed and continues to change the structure of the labor market in the developing digital economy, cardinally transforming the relationships between employers and employees. Even though hundreds of millions of people worldwide already use the services of digital platforms, their potential and capabilities are still developing. Currently, there is an asymmetry in the relations between the platform and the executors that are dependent on the platform and subordinate to it. However, most national labor legislations do not regulate platform employment. No one in the world knows how to build a relationship between the platform and contractors or what the legal framework for this relationship should be. The new challenges posed by the emergence of digital labor platforms must be addressed through a global social dialogue. Platform employees should be enabled to exercise their principal labor rights in full, regardless of their status.