Fairness through employment or entrepreneurship? Platform workers’ fairness references on differently-controlled online labour platforms

This article examines platform workers’ subjective constructions of fairness on differently controlled online labour platforms (OLPs). Research on platform work has recognized the versatility of OLP control operations, and the heterogeneity of platform workers. Despite this, studies on platform work fairness often overlook how diverse OLP operations and social dynamics shape workers’ fairness perceptions and the norms through which they evaluate the fairness of OLP operations. This has led to extensive knowledge about issues related to platform work but mixed findings and insufficient understanding of how platform workers’ subjective fairness perceptions are constructed. This qualitative study applies fairness theory and fairness references to examine platform workers’ subjective fairness constructions in differently controlled OLPs. The findings suggest that in market logic-orientated OLPs, workers systematically construct fairness by referring to entrepreneurship norms. In more corporation-logic-orientated and extensively controlled OLPs, workers’ fairness references were internally diverse. While emphasizing employment references, they also used entrepreneurship, self-determination, and platform work references. These diverse perceptions may arise from different forms of OLP control or the heterogeneity of workers’ backgrounds and needs. While some platform workers have undertaken the capitalist pursuit of individual entrepreneurship, others expect OLPs to take wider-ranging responsibilities for workers. Previous platform work research could be enriched through broader theoretical foundations and better understanding of workers’ fairness constructions across the wide field of OLPs.