The future of care: platform work & digitalisation

“One usually thinks of Deliveroo drivers and Uber taxis, but in the field of care, platform work has also developed to encompass babysitting, cleaning, old-age care, special needs care, etc.” 

Claire Marzo in “The European Care Strategy: A Chance to Ensure Inclusive Care for All?” 
(FEPS-FES Policy Study, March 2023) 

This lunch policy webinar was part of a series building on the policy study ‘The European Strategy: A chance to ensure inclusive care for all?‘. The “Care4Care Policy Series” offered a set of short discussions which highlighted the persisting challenges related to care policy-making. The series especially focused on policy-oriented solutions and on their interaction with other policy fields.

Domestic help constitutes an occupational group where platforms are booming. At the same time, it represents a sector where women are still largely over-represented. Digitalisation has namely affected the care sector through the growing use of digital platforms raising the need for regulation at the European level in a care-sensitive approach. What are the European alleyways to ensure that the regulation of the care and digital transitions go hand in hand (namely in the context of the AI Act and the EU Care strategy)? This is one of the questions that this session addressed in an endeavour to reap the opportunities offered by new technologies whilst acknowledging the limited scope of automation and productivity improvements for a humane approach to care. 

Care being such a complex and multifaceted policy field, each discussion will target a different dimension relevant to understand how the Strategy can give itself the means to ensure that care-givers and -receivers do not fall short of the EU’s fundamental values and the fulfilment of social rights.

The European Care Strategy can be seen as the very start of the EU’s journey towards developing solid and encompassing policies acknowledging the centrality of care whilst protecting and valuing all those needing or providing it.

In the policy study, the authors feed and guide the discussion by critically assessing whether the European Care Strategy can be seized as an opportunity to trigger a new approach to care that is truly inclusive and fair for all. They explore whether the EU is sufficiently equipping itself to live up to the claims that European values “can only flourish in a caring society”. On the one hand, it offers an analysis of the positive developments welcomed by the key stakeholders. On the other hand, it also serves better to understand the remaining blind spots of the Strategy. 

Among the speakers:

• Claire Marzo, Associate Professor, Paris East University
• Adam Rogalewski, Policy Officer for Health and Social Services, EPSU
• Irene Rioboo Leston, Researcher, EIGE

Moderation by Inga Sabanova, Policy Officer, FES Future of Work Competence Center

Watch again the policy webinars:

• Monday 5 June – Fair working conditions in childcare
• Monday 19 June – The future of care: platform work & digitalisation
• Wednesday 6 September – Care as a driver of sustainable growth
• Tuesday 10 October – Enhancing sustainable long-term care