Edward Elgar Publishing Social Dialogue in the Gig Economy: A Comparative Empirical Analysis

As our digital economy continues to expand, gig work becomes increasingly significant. This incisive book investigates the ways in which social dialogue can reinforce decent working practices and create inclusive workplaces in the growing gig economy, putting forward a framework for structured dialogue and collective bargaining among social partners, platforms, and workers. Centred on four major case studies – Germany, Greece, Switzerland, and the UK – the book analyses the key challenges that characterise the varied European landscape of gig economies and workforces. With a particular focus on the hospitality, driving, and food delivery sectors, chapters explore the intersection of social partners’ responses and gig workers’ capacity to organise and build collective voice. Examining the complicated and overlapping linkages between workers’ rights, social protection, social dialogue, and decent work, the book aims to expose, and ultimately put an end to, precariousness and exploitation in the context of gig labour. Integrating critical theoretical perspectives and methodologies with context-sensitive evidence, this book will be an essential resource for students and scholars of sociology, social policy, labour policy, employment relations, and human resource management. Its examination of timely questions of collective action and social dialogue in the gig economy will also appeal to activists, journalists, social partners, and policymakers.