Economic Platforms and Their Impact on Labor and Employment Relations: A Comparative Perspective of Delivery Food Apps in Peru and Chile

Technology has posited changes to the State and at the economic level, for example, the upsurge of Economic Platforms is considered disruptive because they are set up as a new business model. Also, in the labor market, there can be noticeable effects like the degradation of labor rights, and how it would affect the dynamics of the trade unions. This debate has been addressed in the European Union and the United States.For instance, in Spain, there was an attempt to regulate Taxi Apps. In LA, where Labor Informality is more than 51.2%, the entrance of these apps was considered a threat and an opportunity to diversify the supply and create job opportunities. Despite this, the total of workers in LA who are “Platform Workers” is less than 1%, and that percentage might progressively increase; meanwhile in the EU is around 3-5%. Considering that “Platform Workers” have been facing many problems as they are not regarded as traditional workers who are protected by domestic regulations, this research aims to assess what are the impacts of Economic Platforms on Labor and Employment Relations in Latin America. The unit of study will be the Delivery Food App workers and it will have a special focus on Peru and Chile given both have some economic and political features. Additionally, topics like Trade Unions and migration will be addressed in this study. The approach of the study will be mixed: qualitative (Review of Documents, Papers, etc.) and quantitative (Gathering Information from Surveys, National Surveys from Peru, and Chile).