Is it possible to outsmart Uber? Individual working tactics within platform work in Poland

ABSTRACT

Platform work in general requires workers to apply specific strategies to stay afloat. In Poland, platform work is a complex system of mutual relations and interdependencies between transnational corporations, national regulators, service providers, intermediaries and platform workers. Based on thirty-one in-depth interviews with Uber drivers in Poland and two expert interviews with fleet partners, this article presents the working strategies adopted by platform workers and looks at how the historical experience of communism may shape responses to twenty-first-century global capitalism. The analysis shows that an adequate remuneration can only be made by adopting the strategy called kombinowanie, a combination of small cheating, fiddling and exploiting loopholes in the law.

KEYWORDS:

• Uber
• platform work
• gig economy
• organisational misbehaviour
• Poland

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 However, the study has received noteworthy criticism from Berg and Johnson (2019).

2 This research was partly funded by the National Science Centre Poland (NCN) (grant no. 2018/02/X/HS6/00957) and DG Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion, European Commission (agreement no.VS/2020/0119).

3 For example, as a way to innovation (Coser, 1964).

4 Interestingly there is a direct semantic connection between the English verb ‘to combine’ and the Polish noun ‘kombinowanie’.

Additional information

Funding

This research was partly funded by the National Science Centre Poland (NCN) [grant number 2018/02/X/HS6/00957] and DG Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion, European Commission [grant number VS/2020/0119].

Notes on contributors

Dominika Polkowska

Dominika Polkowska is an associate professor of sociology at the Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Poland. She is a Deputy Director of the Institute of Sociology. Her research focuses on platform work and working conditions of platform workers as well as on labour relations. Recently she has conducted a research among migrant workers.

Bartosz Mika

Bartosz Mika is an associate professor at University of Gdańsk, Poland. His scientific interests are focused on classical sociological theories, sociology of work and the problem of social inequality. He is an active member of ‘'The Workers' Initiative' Trade Union. He recently published a book on sociological understanding of intelectual property rights.