Entre a flexibilidade e a precarização: comparando trabalhadores do Digitrab que prestam serviço de transporte de pessoas em Portugal e no Brasil

Abstract

This thesis is dedicated to the study of work mediated by digital platforms (digitrab), more specifically those aimed at transporting people. The thesis is that the flexibility of these work arrangements camouflages forms of precariousness, especially evident in countries with weaker socioeconomic conditions and regulatory legal apparatuses. Considering the global relevance of this new work arrangement, the objective was to analyze the relationship between work in people transport apps and job insecurity, comparing digitalrab drivers inserted in two different socioeconomic and cultural contexts: Portugal and Brazil. To achieve this objective, two studies were developed. The first of them, a scoping review was carried out, with the aim of theoretically characterizing the relationship between the work developed by drivers of people transport platforms and job insecurity. After defining the search and inclusion criteria, 12 articles were analyzed using an inductive analysis approach, in which emerging themes were observed from the data collected in the publications, which served as a basis for creating the empirical dimensions. Nine empirical dimensions were found that characterize the precariousness of digitrab work in passenger transportation. These dimensions were organized according to the conceptual categories of precariousness identified in the theory: the objectivity and subjectivity, and the inevitability. The results pointed to evidence of a relationship between work on passenger transportation platforms and job insecurity. The second study aimed to analyze and characterize the perception of digitrab drivers about the work developed on digital passenger transportation platforms, considering the objective and subjective aspects of this work arrangement; to understand the influence of individual factors and institutional differences in the subjective assessment of drivers about their work arrangement in Portugal and Brazil; and to understand how drivers’ perceptions and the distinct socioeconomic and cultural contexts between Portugal and Brazil relate to each other, indicating a greater or lesser degree of job insecurity. A total of 122 workers in Portugal and 179 in Brazil participated in the study. The results indicate that the group of Digitrab drivers in Brazil perceive their work as more flexible in objective terms and have more negative perceptions regarding subjective aspects, compared to drivers in Portugal. Furthermore, based on the perceptions presented, it can be inferred that the work of Digitrab drivers in Brazil presents more precarious characteristics than the work in Portugal. This study made it possible to compare two distinct realities of work carried out on digital passenger transportation platforms. Together, the two studies contributed to a better theoretical delimitation of the phenomenon of the sharing economy, considering its dynamic nature. The results offer a comprehensive view of the dark side of precariousness in the work of platform drivers, providing practical implications for the management and regulation of this type of work. Thus, this thesis made important contributions by analyzing the impact of precarious work on digital passenger transportation platforms. In the theoretical field, it deepened the understanding of the sharing economy and the challenges faced by Digitrab drivers. Methodologically, it evaluated the individual and contextual factors that influence the work arrangement at Digitrab. Socially, it provided theoretical and empirical bases for the formulation of public policies and organizational practices that promote innovation, regulation of the labor market, and protection of workers' rights.