While work is key to good health and well-being (ILO, n.d.; WHO, 2017), it can also be dangerous. According to the ILO’s estimates, work-related factors led to the death of 2.93 million workers and non-fatal injuries in 395 million workers across the world in 2019 (ILO, 2023; Takala et al., 2023). Regulating how work is conducted is therefore essential in social systems based on the buying and selling of labour power (Abrams, 2001). Risks, working environment challenges and occupational safety and health hazards vary across different types of work, labour processes, organizations, work arrangements and forms of employment. Hence, new forms of work, new technologies, new business models and new ways of organizing work might create new occupational safety and health risks for workers, as well as regulatory challenges for lawmakers (Foldal et al., 2023; Nielsen et al., 2022; Papadopoulos et al., 2009).
In the current debates on the “future of work”, much attention has been paid to how technologies such as automation, robotization and artificial intelligence will affect the demand for labour power and how they will affect the occupational structure (see for example Frey and Osborne, 2017).
Technology, however, is only one of multiple factors that affect the future of work and labour markets (Rolandsson and Dølvik, 2021). It also interacts with and is contingent on the legal and regulatory, social, cultural and economic conditions under which it is implemented. It is therefore important to examine both how the quantitative effects of technology on work vary across countries and industries and the qualitative effects of technology on how work is conducted and organized (Rolandsson et al., 2019). This is also the case for the future of occupational safety and health at work (Foldal et al., 2023).
To this end, this report explores risks and working environment challenges associated with the digitalization of work across different forms of employment. We look specifically at the interaction between digitalization and workers’ employment status, areas that have been identified as a particular challenge for the Nordic labour market models (Nordic Council of Ministers for Labour, 2023). The research project and this report bring together researchers and cases from Denmark, Finland and Norway to study digitalized work arrangements in different industries, discussing “analogue” as well as “digital” occupational health and safety hazards. We are particularly interested in platform-mediated gig work as a digitalized form of work often involving non-standard forms of employment (van Doorn, 2017; Woodcock and Graham, 2020). While platform-mediated gig work remains relatively marginal in the Nordic countries at the aggregate level of the labour market (Alsos et al., 2017; Jesnes and Oppegaard, 2020; Kristiansen et al., 2023), this form of work has become a key actor in certain service industries in the Nordic countries, in particular the food delivery, domestic cleaning and taxi industries (Alasoini et al. 2023; Andersen and Spanger 2024; Hau and Savage 2023; Ilsøe and Söderqvist 2023; Jesnes and Oppegaard, 2020, 2023; Mbare 2023; Newlands 2021; Valestrand and Oppegaard, 2022).
In some cases, new technologies can contribute to improving safety and health at work (see Christensen et al., 2020). From an OSH perspective, such potential is important and must be monitored. This project, however, aims solely to explore and identify potential OSH risk factors associated with digitalization across different forms of employment. We do this through three analytical strategies. First, we have conducted a scoping review of the existing literature on work environment challenges associated with digitalization and non-standard work (Bråten and Thorbjørnsen, 2023). Second, we have conducted five empirical case studies of digitalized work arrangements in the cleaning industry and food delivery industry in Finland, Denmark and Norway. These case studies advance our empirical knowledge of the effects of new technologies, new work arrangements and different forms of employment on OSH. Third, based on previous research and our own empirical case studies, we have developed a risk factor framework (Thorbjørnsen and Oppegaard, Chapter 7). This framework identifies occupational safety and health risk factors associated with the digitalization of work across different forms of employment. In addition, we organized two project workshops where we presented and discussed our findings and analysis with representatives from the Nordic labour inspectorates. The project has been funded by the Nordic Working Environment Committee under the Nordic Council of Ministers and coordinated by Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research.
