NATIONAL CONTEXT: HUNGARY

24 DIGITAL LABOUR PLATFORMS

terms of data comparability and transparency, it should be noted that diverse definitions and terminology are employed in the platform literature (Huws et al., 2019; Piasna and Drahokoupil, 2019). Even in the United States (US), which was the birthplace of the platform economy, the statistics on platform workers vary according to whether ‘broad’ or ‘narrow’ definitions of platforms are used. Depending on the types of definition used, in Europe, the US and Canada, between 2015 and 2019, the estimated share of platform workers ranged between 0.2% and 22% of the labour force (ILO, 2021, p. 3). A recent study from Schüssler et al. (2021) goes deeper and suggests that the lack of a single concept or terminology for platform work can be explained by three fac-tors: the diversity, the hybridity and the malleability of platforms. Elaborating on this further, we share Schüssler et al.’s view that the lack of consensus on terminology can be addressed in the following way:

This diversity, hybridity and malleability calls for an understanding of platforms that moves away from the idea that they simply combine multiple governance modes in novel ways […] we advance an understanding of platforms as a multi-faceted relational structure in which three social forces operate simultaneously – those of mutuality, autonomy and domination. (Schüssler et al., 2021, p. 5)

According to the first comprehensive European COLLEEM 2017 survey covering 14 European Union (EU) Member States, the adjusted estimates of platform workers as a percentage of the total adult population of internet users are as follows for the Crowdwork project countries: Spain 11.6%, Portugal 10.6%, Germany 10.4% and Hungary 6.7%, against an EU average of 9.7% (Pesole et al., 2019, p. 15). However, according to the recent survey by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) covering Central European Countries (CEE), Hungary had a leading position in terms of the share of platform workers in each national workforce, with Hungary at 7.8%, followed by Slovakia (7.1%), Bulgaria (4.4%), Latvia (4.0%) and Poland (1.9%) (Piasna and Drahokoupil, 2019, p. 10).

The selection of cases to describe individual and collective voice formation in relation to Hungarian platforms was based on experiences from the limited empirical research already carried out in CEEs (Meszmann, 2018; Kahancová et al., 2020). In addition, due to the previous empirical research on platform work focusing exclusively on the location-based platforms in Hungary (Micro-work, Airbnb, Uber) and following the agreed selection of platform types by the Crowdwork project consortium members, the Hungarian team selected both

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online web-based platforms (such as Upwork) and location-based platforms (such as Bolt and Wolt). (For more detail, see Table 1.)

Table 1 Interviews in case studies in Hungary Names of platforms

(grouped by type)

Actor Types Worker /

Entrepreneur

Manager / Owner of platform

Trade union officials / Trade union experts I. Location-based platforms (Mobile Labour Market – MLM)

1. Wolt 6 2

--2. Bolt 6 --

--II. Online-based platform (Online Labour Market – OLM)

3. Upwork 6 --

--Total 18 2 8

In surveying the three platforms, a ‘multi-case study’ approach was adopted.

The case study is an appropriate research tool to build theory from an induc-tively analysed social phenomenon and enables us to address ‘how-or-why’

questions. Data were collected and analysed on three platforms, amounting to multi-case or multi-site case studies. The multi-case method contains ‘two stages of analysis, those within the case analysis and those in cross-case analysis. For within-case analysis, each case will be treated as a comprehensive case itself.

Once the analysis of each case is completed, a cross-case analysis is conducted’

(Tomory, 2014, p. 61).

First signs of collective representation in Hungary: A context of eroded traditional trade unions and uneven public debate

Following the failure of the state-socialist political and economic regime, the structure of Hungarian trade unions shifted from monolithic to pluralistic, and from a relatively strong bargaining position to an extremely weak one. A frag-mented and divided trade union structure emerged with unions competing at both the workplace and national levels, and losing the majority of their mem-bers within a few years of the economic restructuring and mass privatisation of

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the early 1990s. In comparison, under the state-socialist political and economic system, union membership was compulsory in practice and take-up was virtu-ally 100% (Borbély and Neumann, 2019). By 2018, overall trade union density had plummeted to 7.9% (Neumann, 2018). According to the Hungarian National Statistical Office (Központi Statisztikai Hivatal), the highest level of union density is present in the electric energy sector, followed by the majority of state-owned sectors, including public services such as transport, education, health and social care. However, even among the state-owned sectors, the decline in trade union membership has been significant, with the share of union membership vary-ing between 15% and 22% in 2018 (Neumann, 2018). Research has shown that Hungarian social partners engaged in collective negotiation are also reluctant to broaden their bargaining scope (Borbély and Neumann, 2019; Borbély et al., 2021).

The traditional organisational tools to recruit new trade union members appear to be rather ineffective (Borbély et al., 2021). There is an urgent need to identify the particular requirements of platform workers. In addition to inventing new forms of recruitment techniques, there is the challenge of focusing more on advocacy strategies, which are distinct from more traditional forms of organising strategies. Advocacy services could also function as an organising or collective learning process for both trade union staff and their new future ‘clients’ (covering the full range of categories of platform workers). Once mutual trust and engage-ment are created, it will be much easier to develop a shared vision and mutually reinforcing activities between workers and union organisers.

There is uneven public and scientific debate on platforms. The social sci-ence community has generally paid little attention to the social and economic dimensions of platform work in Hungary, and the same is true of the public arena, including online media. There is an evident division between the mainstream media (which essentially ignores the platform topic) and some specialised blogs that largely focus on platform work, particularly digital freelancers operating on online web-based platforms such as Upwork.

In terms of professional initiatives, an important space for debates and organisation has been created in the annual ‘Freelancer Festival’, which addresses issues related to freelancers’ working experiences, mutual learning, develop-ment of brand and client base, and identification of new global trends (such as studio-type project work). Surprisingly, employment conditions and financial matters were rather peripheral issues in the annual Freelancer Festivals organ-ised between 2017 and 2020 (Benedek et al., 2021). From the side of the plat-forms, the Hungarian Sharing Economy Association (HSEA, Magyar Közösségi

NATIONAL CONTEXT: HUNGARY 27

Gazdaság Szövetség) was established in March 2017, which promotes cooperation between platform owners and operators. Their members strongly believe that highlighting the potential of sharing helps all stakeholders in the fast-growing platform economy. Currently, the HSEA represents the interests of 14 platform owners and operates outside the traditional employer associations in Hungary.

Legal regulation: A binary model

Hungarian labour law follows the classic binary model where workers are either employees or self-employed, with no intermediary category between the two.

Hungarian labour law has no clear, established definition of self-employment as such. In practice, self-employed persons are independent contractors who work under civil law contracts (Kiss, 2013; Gyulavári, 2014; Kun et al., 2020). Irrespective of the nature of the contract (employment contract or civil contract), all workers are entitled to certain minimum rights: free movement, social security and equal treatment protection, and health and safety at work. However, only employees are entitled to a further set of important rights, such as protection against ter-mination of employment, employers’ liability and collective rights, including the right to enter into collective agreements. Furthermore, Hungarian case law shows that although the self-employed have the rights indicated above, these are rarely enforced or applied in practice (Gyulavári, 2014; Makó et al., 2021, p. 8).

COVID-19: A variety of impacts

The impacts of the pandemic are unprecedentedly large. However, it is important not to overestimate them. We share the view that the worldwide crisis triggered by COVID-19 ‘has no parallel in modern history […]. However, broad and radical pronouncements (like “everything will change”) and an all-or-nothing, black-and-white analysis should be deployed with great care’ (Schwab and Malleret, 2020, p. 1). When mapping the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on platform work-ers, we should emphasise that they are rather varied. The different outcomes can be identified not only between online web-based and location-based platforms but also within the same platforms operating in different regions.

In relation to the Hungarian platforms studied in this research project, we found the impacts of COVID-19 to be different depending on whether

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location-based platforms (Wolt and Bolt) or online web-based platforms (Upwork) are being considered. Based on physical proximity scores,¹ the location-based platforms (Bolt taxi drivers and Wolt food couriers) requiring on-site presence would face higher health risks. In the cases of personal taxi transport and caring work, there would also be heavier financial harm, while in contrast, food-courier services experienced a high-growth cycle (such as Wolt and Bolt Food). Platform workers participating in the food-delivery economy (including those operating with other goods besides food, such as groceries and household goods) have experienced overall benefits despite the negative pandemic impacts. In terms of online web-based platforms and the demand for their services, there were both slight decreases (for example, in sales and translation) and increases (for example, in software development and IT consulting). In these online web-based platform cases, no direct health effects from COVID-19 were registered due to the remote nature of work.

1. By using the data of the O*NET OnLine survey (2020) covering 800 occupations and more than 2,000 tasks, experts from the McKinsey Global Institute measured the degree of physical proximity in ten work arenas: (1) medical care, (2) personal care, (3) on-site customer interaction, (4) leisure and travel, (5) home support, (6) indoor production and warehousing, (7) computer-based office work, (8) classroom and training, (9) transportation of goods, (10) outdoor production and maintenance. In measuring the degree of the ‘overall physical proximity’, the following human interactions and work environment metrics were used: physical closeness, frequency of interactions, exposure to strangers, indoor work and site-dependent work (Lund et al., 2021).