The aim of this research project and report has been twofold: First, we have sought to advance the empirical understanding of occupational safety and health (OSH) risk factors related to different forms of non-standard employment and digitalization, such as field technologies and digital platforms. Our second aim has been to use this knowledge to develop a risk factor framework that can be useful for Nordic labour inspectorates to assess potential risk factors at individual workplaces. This chapter endeavours to achieve this second aim, drawing on insights from the case studies, the scoping review (Bråten and Thorbjørnsen, 2023), feedback from the project workshops and other key sources.
At one of the project workshops with representatives from Nordic labour inspectorates, one of the participants argued that keeping up with new forms of platform-mediated gig work felt like “running after a quite rapid development”. Hopefully, the insights and proposals gathered in this chapter can contribute to “taming the treadmill” and strengthening the toolbox of the Nordic labour inspectorates. Accordingly, this chapter has been written to be accessible to an audience beyond the usual research community.
The chapter is structured as follows. First, we provide an overview of the relevant OSH dimensions (psychosocial and organizational) and some of the ways in which new technology has been reshaping OSH challenges. In section 7.3, we present and discuss our risk factor framework. This framework is designed to provide labour inspectorates with a conceptual overview of potential risk factors and thereby be useful before and during inspections in digitalized work arrangements. A total of seven risk factors are discussed: isolation, deskilling, worker turnover, piece-rate precarity and stress, reduced autonomy, control and surveillance, and increased OSH fragmentation. The final section summarizes the risk factors and discusses regulatory challenges associated with OSH, digitalization and non-standard forms of employment.
