Gig economy platform workers struggle to make ends meet, take time off for caring commitments or holidays, and complain of suffering from mental ill health, stress and exhaustion.
The findings come from a poll of 1,000 platform workers – or those who offer services through digital platforms or apps as independent contractors – commissioned by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).
Two in five said they had experienced stress caused or made worse by their work in the past year, with a third complaining of tiredness or exhaustion.
More than half (58%) said working for an online platform resulted in them having unpredictable income, making it difficult to pay bills, with the same number saying it caused difficulty in caring for dependants, including children and elderly relatives.
Nearly two-thirds (63%) said it affected their ability to take holidays and 54% felt they had low levels of job security.
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The report, Towards a safe and healthy future of work and carried out with Arup, has explored how advances in technology, climate change and adaptations to ways of working potentially pose risks to workers’ health, safety and wellbeing.
For example, it has questioned whether advances in technology could create new health, safety and wellbeing risks. On the other hand, could monitoring devices alert bosses to a worker’s health condition before they know about it?
Ruth Wilkinson, head of policy and public affairs at IOSH, said: “We face the future with a real sense of excitement and opportunity, but also with caution and uncertainty. What we know for certain is that the world of work will continue to change, but we don’t know for sure how this will play out and evolve.
“Our report highlights this, focusing on how new technologies and digitalisation are creating opportunities to improve how people are protected at work but also showing that this can create new hazards and risks to health and safety, all of which need to be managed.
“Among the changes that have already happened is a rise in gig work. To explore these findings further, the results of our survey show people working in the gig economy are really struggling, which is of real concern and requires action,” Wilkinson added.
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The report has called for health and safety to be a central consideration in the development of new technologies, and for the profession to ensure it keeps up to date with changes to continue to advise businesses.
James Pomeroy, global health and safety director at Arup, said: “Towards a safe and healthy future of work offers landmark guidance regarding how we can better navigate the landscape we operate in, prioritising risk mitigation by further integrating technologies.”
