FES BRIEFING A COLLECTIVE WORK AGENDA FOR THE DIGITAL ECONOMY How do we get there? April 2024 SUMMARY INTRODUCTION → The new digital economy has led to profound changes in working conditions. The world of work is characterised by pervasive surveillance and data collection, misclassification, a degradation of workplace standards, and increasing precarity. → These changing dynamics offer a benchmark by which we could consider what types of interven­tion workers need and deserve. → The creation of a decent work agenda in the digi­tal economy should be based on the needs of workers instead of bearing the imprint of more general public policy structures that often center on consumers and individuals. Many of us have encountered a platform worker at some point in our lives, whether it was to order a ride using a mo­bile app or crossing paths with a food delivery worker speed­ing food from a nearby restaurant to a customer. During the pandemic, platform workers, like food delivery workers, be­came hyper-visible, with people in quarantine depending on delivery drivers to bring them basic necessities(De Frey­tas-Tamura& Singer, 2020). Since then, the number of plat­form workers has continued to surge. According to a 2021 Pew Charitable Trust survey, 16 percent of Americans stated they have earned money through an online platform(An­derson, McClain, Faverio& Gelles-Watnick, 2021). In Europe, an estimated 28 million workers found employment through a digital platform in 2022, with the Council of the European Union expecting this number to soar to 48 million by 2025 (EU Rules on Platform Work). ABOUT THE AUTHOR Among more traditional occupations, employers are also us­ing digital tools like hand-held devices, communications software, and applications to monitor and manage work (Kellogg Insights). The»sharing economy« may have begun with home-sharing and ride-sharing, but today platform workers engage in a wide range of occupations, including delivery work, house cleaning, customer service, and content annotation. Numerous other occupations are susceptible to platformisation because there is an economic incentive for corporations to follow this model of work organisation. Aiha Nguyen is the Program Director for the Labor Futures Initiative at at Data& Society Research Institute, where she directs and guides research and engagement. She contributes a practitioner's perspective to this role, having worked for over a decade in community and worker advocacy and organising. Her research interests lie in those areas where labour, technology, and urban studies intersect. NEW CONDITIONS OF WORK The movement of many types of work onto platforms and reliance on algorithmic management is changing working conditions. This change has had a number of impacts on workers who find themselves unprotected by current regu­lations. Yet, recent debates on how to best protect people in the digital economy do not always align with the con­cerns and needs of workers. 1