[...]of these measures, hundreds of millions of workers have been deprived of their usual incomes. First and foremost, it has become clear that the burdens associated with the pandemic have fallen much harder on some categories of people than others. Despite claims that flexible working arrangements are mutually beneficial, these workers typically have 'no job security, in-work benefits, or labour rights, and are very vulnerable to the whims of employers'.6 Platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk are able to leverage their market position to depress wages and conditions.7 Not all digital work is inherently exploitative, but the deck is nonetheless heavily stacked against most workers thanks to the challenges associated with collective organising, competition, jurisdictional challenges, and limited regulation. Guy Standing, for example, has theorised 'the creation of a global "precariat"', which he portrays as an emerging class within the global economy that is collectively defined by a shared lack of labour-related security.13 While there is broad agreement that vulnerability and insecurity are foundational themes, Standing's critics have questioned the extent to which this singular framework smooths over differences in context and circumstances.
Editorial: From Exceptional Cases to Everyday Abuses: Labour exploitation in the global economy