Social Protection for Location-based Platform Workers: Systematic Review and Philippine Policy Analysis

Abstract

Platform work has changed the employment landscape in various ways. Proponents showcase how platforms provide a win-win situation wherein employment opportunities for workers and flexibility for businesses. However, others criticize how these platforms enable an environment where workers are further marginalized. Social protection is an important policy strategy to ensure decent work in this sector.

Through a systematic literature review of academic and grey literature and international and local policies, the reseachers examine how social protection policy is framed in research and in practice globally for location-based gig workers. They relate it to the current Philippine context and how the country responded to the concerns of platform workers, thus, suggest potential policy strategies.

This study discovers that social protection for platform workers is part of a comprehensive policy mix for decent work in the platform economy.  Employment status, work precarity, and platform control are key issues policymakers must address to support a transformative social protection policy. 

In the Philippine context, despite its being one of the first countries to implement formalization policies for platform workers through the Transpostation Network Vehicle Service (TNVS) scheme, these focused on business registration and taxation, which did not address social protection challenges. Hence, the researchers recommend that a strong policy mix for platform workers should include a social protection agenda in line with decent work objectives, addressing employment status, lowering precarity, and improving social collaboration.