Regulating platform work in South-East Europe: Comparative case study of Croatia and Serbia

Abstract

This thesis explores the reorganization and institutionalization of platform work in South-East Europe, focusing on ride-hailing and food delivery platforms in Croatia and Serbia. It examines the legal and institutional context as well as the role of industrial relations actors and their response to the spread of platform work. Using an interdisciplinary approach, including historical and comparative institutionalist analysis, the study explores how platform work adapted to local institutional settings, leading to varying work arrangements and regulatory responses. The research is based on a qualitative multi-case study involving 133 interviews with platform workers and key informants. The thesis illustrates how labour platforms’ business models and strategies differentially affect workers’ status and access to rights depending on the combination of institutional factors. The use of local subcontractors in the case of Croatia and Serbia opened a space for exploiting existing weaknesses in labour regulation, resulting in various work arrangements spanning from formal and quasi-formal to informal work. It also reveals differences in regulatory responses. With impetus from the European Union and in the context of the limited power of social partners and the strong influence of multinational platform companies, the Croatian solution to platform work resulted in the permissiveness of various platform business models and progressive flexibilization of Croatian labour law. The lack of external and domestic pressures allowed the Serbian state to remain inactive, resulting in the de facto deregulation of the labour market. Taken together, the thesis contributes to understanding the variety of platform organizational and work models and their impact on working conditions by offering a comprehensive understanding of interactions between labour platforms and institutions in post-communist, transitioning countries with varied levels of Europeanisation.