Digital technological platforms – an opportunity or a threat to quality work?
Digital technological platforms – an opportunity or a threat to quality work?

Summary/Abstract: Digital technological platforms that facilitate the provision of many services are a relativelynew development in the economy, especially in the labour market. As they are becoming increasinglyprevalent, the characteristics of this business model are gradually revealed. The model creates manynovel ways to make goods available and generate income, but it also translates into a new quality of work.In the discussion of the labour market segment operating based on technological platforms, the worldliterature tends to employ the concepts of the gig economy and cybertariat, which are unequivocallynegative in their connotations.The paper discusses the relationship between technological innovations and work. It aims todetermine the characteristics of work carried out through digital technological platforms in the crosssection of the major dimensions of quality work. The paper presents the verification of the researchhypothesis assuming that the business model adopted by digital technological platforms threatens thestandards of quality work. The analysis uses the methodology designed by the author and employsthe criteria developed by the European Anti-Poverty Network, constituting the quintessence of thecontemporary approach to the issue in the European Union. Its main conclusion is that the gig economysegment is highly heterogeneous, which makes it difficult to assess and discuss the problems arising in thissegment and their solutions. In consequence, it requires a clarification through adequate classificationsand identification of problem groups. However, the research results reveal that a significant part of the gigeconomy generates very low quality work.

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