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Cited by 657Digital Economy and Work TransformationLegal and Labor StudiesEmployment, Labor, and Gender Studies

Platform-Capital’s ‘App-etite’ for Control: A Labour Process Analysis of Food-Delivery Work in Australia

Veen, Alex, Barratt, Tom, Goods, Caleb·2020·Work, Employment and Society
DOI 10.1177/0950017019836911
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Abstract

This qualitative case study adopts a labour process analysis to unpack the distinctive features of capital’s control regimes in the food-delivery segment of the Australian platform-economy and assesses labour agency in response to these. Drawing upon worker experiences with the Deliveroo and UberEATS platforms, it is shown how the labour process controls are multi-facetted and more than algorithmic management, with three distinct features standing out: the panoptic disposition of the technological infrastructure, the use of information asymmetries to constrain worker choice, and the obfuscated nature of their performance management systems. Combined with the workers’ precarious labour market positions and the Australian political-economic context, only limited, mainly individual, expressions of agency were found.

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Crossref · 10.1177/0950017019836911

Cites

1 of 1 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Previous studies among gig workers have reported that algorithmic task allocation often results in job insecurity.

    “Previous studies among gig workers have further reported that algorithmic task allocation also often results in job insecurity, (Griesbach et al., 2019;Lehdonvirta, 2018;Veen et al., 2019;Wood, Graham, Lehdonvirta, & Hjorth, 2019)”

    From Algorithms as work designers: How algorithmic management influences the design of jobs (2022) · cites this paper as Veen et al., 2019

  • The strong impact of customer satisfaction ratings has been associated with workers' perception of job insecurity.

    “The strong impact of these ratings, largely questioned about their volatility, the reliability and validity (Gerber & Krzywdzinski, 2019;Greenwood, Adjerid, & Angst, 2019;Luca & Zervas, 2016;Orlikowski & Scott, 2013;Rosenblat, Levy, Barocas, & Hwang, 2017), has been associated with workers' perception of job insecurity (Curchod et al., 2019;Veen et al., 2019).”

    From Algorithms as work designers: How algorithmic management influences the design of jobs (2022) · cites this paper as Veen et al., 2019

  • Algorithmic performance management is positively associated with job insecurity.

    “Job insecurity (+)”

    From Algorithms as work designers: How algorithmic management influences the design of jobs (2022) · cites this paper as Veen et al. (2019)

  • These ethical issues may be the tip of the iceberg when considering the wider literature on OLPs and their use of algorithmic HRM to automate HR decisions.

    “These issues may be the tip of the iceberg when considering the wider literature on OLPs and their use of algorithmic HRM to automate HR decisions (Gal et al., 2020;Newlands, 2020;Veen et al., 2020).”

    From Algorithmic human resource management: Synthesizing developments and cross-disciplinary insights on digital HRM (2021) · cites this paper as Veen et al., 2020

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Authors
Veen, A., Barratt, T., & Goods, C.
Affiliations
  • The University of Sydney (AU)
  • Edith Cowan University (AU)
  • The University of Western Australia (AU)
Corresponding author
Veen, Alex
ORCID
Venue
Work, Employment and Society
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2019-03-25
Volume
34
Issue
3
Pages
388-406
ISSN
  • 0950-0170 (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-8722
DOI
10.1177/0950017019836911
OpenAlex
W2925236077
Cited by
657
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 116 · 2025: 105 · 2024: 98 · 2023: 116 · 2022: 105 · 2021: 83 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 8
FWCI
111.49
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations
  • Work Employment and Society (publishedVersion)
  • UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (submittedVersion)
  • Research Online (Edith Cowan University) (submittedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Economy and Work Transformation
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Industrial relations › Legal and Labor Studies
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Employment, Labor, and Gender Studies
Keywords
platform work, food delivery, labor process, algorithmic management, information asymmetry, performance management, precarious employment, worker agency, Deliveroo, platform capitalism

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