Virtual technical meeting on Gig Economy
Technical meeting: Labour Management in the Gig Economy

HSF

The Gig Economy represents a significant economic development that arguably has the potential to restructure global and national labour markets. However, as an increasing trend, it also raises concerns about new regulatory challenges, taxation, rights and social protection for gig workers. As a country with rapid and remarkable growth in the use of digital platforms for employment and service delivery, Vietnam has not yet conceptualised an official definition for Gig Economy and thus there are no established regulations in place yet. Together with ILSSA, HSF organized an online technical meeting with the participation of an international expert and representatives of governmental agencies to discuss about conceptual details and best practices of different countries in regulating Gig Economy and protecting its workers.

HSF

Throughout the meeting, participants recognized that Gig Economy is commonly characterized by independent workers providing paid services in the form of short-term tasks mediated by online platforms. For Vietnam, they addressed the need for a sound analysis of the current legal documents before discussing implications of Gig Economy and its implications. Additionally, Prof. Herrmann recommended governmental agencies to start collecting data of Gig workers and platform providers in order to have better understanding of the extent of Gig Economy in Vietnam.

The inputs collected from this meeting provide a sound knowledge base about Gig Economy for participants. However, further works will still be needed to ascertain regulatory approaches for Gig Economy in terms of governance and implication in its workers’ social protection. HSF will work together with ILSSA to draft an empirical study to assess the status quo with regards to the Gig Economy in Vietnam and to provide recommendations for subsequent regulatory approaches to be taken.