Voices of digital labor: the subordinated work by digital platforms according to the workers perception

The subordinated work by digital platforms according to the workers perception

Abstract

Introduction: In the information and communication technologies (ICT) corporation’s context, companies that identify themselves as digital platforms, especially for providing services, form one among many possible organizational models in the world of capital. Such corporations have imposed on workers a new model of work organization. This model demands reflections on the centrality of labor theory of value as an axis of theoretical reflection and recognition of contemporary forms of subsumption of work to capital.

Objective: This manuscript presents results of a research that aimed to listen to the voices of labor, subjects whose workforce is subordinated by digital platforms.

Methods: This is an exploratory and qualitative research, based on the dialogue with the literature, and whose data collection was done through semi-structured interviews with participants recruited by convenience, through the snowball technique. Eight workers were interviewed and their interviews were submitted to thematic analysis (TA).

Results: Based on the analysis of the interviews, it was enabled to identify and investigate four dimensions of the

world of work: work as an opportunity; the work relations concrete characteristics mediated by digital platforms; the work precariousness; and the individual and collective coping strategies of these workers.

Conclusion: It is concluded that, if the characteristics initially identified as “opportunity” and “autonomy” of the subordinated work through digital platforms tend to appear as a positive quality of these contemporary labor relations, the strenuous workdays associated with low financial gains, reveal the contradictory of work in the worker practical conscience.