Discussion on the Filtr podcast
Project members Markéta Švarcová and Alžběta Mangarela were guests on the Filtr podcast by the media house PageNotFound, where they spoke with Apolena Rychlíková about platform work in the Czech Republic. The discussion focused on what platform work actually is – and what it is not – where it occurs, who is pushed into it and why, and what risks it entails. They addressed algorithmic management, digital surveillance, rating systems and the deactivation of workers’ accounts without clear justification, as well as the widespread use of self-employment (IČO) as a way of shifting responsibility for sickness, injuries, holidays, social security and administrative burdens onto individual workers. A key part of the conversation concerned the EU Platform Work Directive and its implementation in Czech law, highlighting the risk of a minimalist transposition that would formally comply with EU requirements while stripping the directive of its protective impact. The episode makes clear that this is not a technical debate, but a political choice with direct consequences for the working conditions of tens of thousands of people in the digital economy.
Source: pagenotfound.cz/clanek/sef-v-kapse-jak-platformy-ridi-praci-v-cesku-i-podcast-filtr
Podcast Series Platforms on the Edge
Members of the team from the Institute of Sociology are also the authors of the podcast series Platforms on the Edge, published by the daily Alarm. Sociologist Markéta Švarcová and economist Alžběta Mangarella invite experts on platform work into the studio, offering different perspectives on how to think about it as well as how to experience it. Listeners can, for example, learn about the political consequences of platform work, highlighted by political scientist Kateřina Smejkalová; its legal anchoring in the Czech context, explained by lawyer and trade unionist Šárka Homfray; or its economic impacts on the Czech labor market and state budget, presented by economist Jan Bittner. Last but not least, project team member Sabina Vassileva also shares her own experiences and ethnographic insights in a two episodes reflecting on the gendered dimensions of work in delivery services.
More: https://denikalarm.cz/tema/platformy-na-hrane/
