In 2016, 100,000 companies around the world were identified as being related to the sharing economy. Many of us seem to be interested in it: the consumer with collaborative consumption (Uber), the citizen with a collaborative lifestyle (cohousing), the entrepreneur with collaborative financing (crowdfunding) or the average person contributing to collaborative production (Wikipedia). But what does the employee think of the sharing economy?
Demystification of uberization
Uber, uberization… what is the economic model of this California company? It consists of connecting people with availability and skills/resources with a large number of users, through a digital platform, based on technological innovation. The conclusion? Increased competition with traditional companies, reduction or even disappearance of intermediaries, lower prices… in theory! This so-called collaborative economy, or even sharing economy, is based on a horizontal organization where the emphases is on pooling of services or goods to the detriment of personal property. The idea is not all that recent and was developed by Aristotle: “Wealth consists more in use than in possession.”
Collaborative economy and employment
In our present world, everything is going very quickly… enough to make your head spin! Some people are ready to say that uberization will put an end to salaried workers, such as Jean-Pierre Gaudard in 2013, others claim that uberization destroys jobs (mainly in the tertiary sector) or, conversely, will create jobs due to the ease of access to the goods and services which boost the economy. Who are we to believe? Perhaps Willem Pieter De Groen and Ilaria Maselli who, in their report The collaborative Economy on the Labour Market say that it is difficult to measure and predict the impact of the collaborative economy on the labour market. At issue are statistics which do not yet incorporate these data, the scale and growth of this economy which are insufficient to be able to measure the consequences.
Collaborative economy, synonymous with precariousness?
To be able to work wherever you want, when you want, with whom you want, at the price you want – what could be more wonderful! Be careful, it could be the tree that’s hiding the forest. Do these Uber workers – or those of other start-ups such as Handy, Wedo (DIY) or even Cooks From Home – know that their social benefits status is very precarious? No more unemployment insurance, protection in the event of an accident or illness, finished with contributions to the pension plan and social benefits. In some cases, the self-employed worker even has to sign a non-compete clause. And what about defending the rights of freelancers and the self-employed? Who will represent these players in the working world who don’t know each other, never meet each other? In the end, uberization affects the wages of the employees of so-called traditional companies – why would an employer continue to pay a high salary with various expenses when he could make use of self-employed workers?
At the present time, it is legitimate for the employee to wonder about the consequences of a potential uberization of the various economic sectors, but there is no need for undue concern. On the one hand, start-up companies will not always have the support of financial backers, who are very reluctant to finance start-ups that focus only on the rate of growth and not on profitability. On the other hand, the digital platform is like a showcase, and collaborative companies need to have their operational machinery working very well, and especially in the field of human resources.