"rates of e-bike theft are rising fast... A recent survey by the Workers’ Observatory, a gig work monitoring group involving workers and researchers from St Andrews and Edinburgh Universities, found that 40 per cent of riders had bikes stolen..." www.scotsman.com/news/opinion...

Higher ed workers in australia, the NTEU are looking for stories about how LLMs/"AI" have affected your work and working conditions. Are you spending more time marking, but receiving the same time allocation? Do you have the flexibility/autonomy you need to design appropriate assessment?

Algorithmic Wage Discrimination is spreading beyond 'Gig' work: Healthcare, Customer Service, & Logistics bosses are buying AI products that set compensation structures & wages using real time data. @wilneida.bsky.social & I did an audit & here are our findings equitablegrowth.org/how-artifici...

Funny how examples like this don't come up in productivity roundtable discussions and media reporting focus on the need to "embrace AI" #auspol

"Uber's response was simply to cancel the order and offer him a discount on his next order. News4 reached out to Uber to see if they know anything about where the delivery driver was taken and what the company's policy is when drivers get detained while on the job. Uber has not responded."

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, The Australia Institute, Canberra, Australia jobs.theconversation.com/jobs/4204108...

'The food delivery sector is no longer just a site of informal economic survival for precarious migrants' - @nandosigona.bsky.social & @stefano-piemontese.bsky.social on 'a new mode of migration governance' merging algorithmic control and immigration enforcement www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-tr...

On the NZ context "Rather than preventing the misclassification of workers, the law changes may make it easier. They do little to address the challenges vulnerable contractors face, fail to tackle the structural problems of platform work, & disregard how other countries are modernising their laws."

Melbourne Folks! I will be hosting a book launch to celebrate The Mechanic and the Luddite! Come hear me chat about the book with Lizzie O'Shea and Chris O'Neill — and have a free drink! • August 14th, 6pm, Victorian Trades Hall • Register for free: events.humanitix.com/sadowkski-th...

This is a clear sighted analysis of how lacking in substance and recognition of AI risks, the NZ government's new AI strategy is. theconversation.com/nzs-new-ai-s...

Our Special Issue of WOLG has been published--New Worlds of Logistical Labour: Space, places, technologies, workers A big thank you to our incredible contributors and co-editors @drtombarnes.bsky.social and @blueskychris.bsky.social for making this happen 🎉 www.scienceopen.com/hosted-docum...

As you may have noticed, earlier this month I defended my PhD. But what was it about? My topic was algorithmic management. Specifically, I tried to answer the question: How does algorithmic management reshape the employment relationship? (TL;DR – see the picture at the end)

New - Oxford University research in partnership with @Workerinfox exposes deepening exploitation of Uber drivers by algorithmic pay www.workerinfoexchange.org/post/new-res...

I’m researching ways that digital technologies in Australia's private rental sector are impacting renters and housing justice. I’m looking for more interview participants. If you are a renter and have experience using ‘RentTech’ - I want to speak with you! More info and EOI here:

AI in the Street: Drone Observatory has won the STEAM Award at the New Media Film Festival in LA. Filmed in Logan, QLD, it explores life under drone delivery trials. Created by ADM+S researcher @thaophan.bsky.social & filmmaker Jeni Lee. admscentre.org/43VtZPE

Disaster is not the exception; it is the consequence of how we live and reflects the subtle patterns of everyday life. 🌪️ "What’s ‘Natural’ About Disasters? Practice Theory as an Emancipatory Lens for Reconceptualising the Social Construction of Disasters” (👉🏾 ojs.library.lancs.ac.uk/jpt/article/...)

As one chef put it: ‘Free steak dinners don’t pay my rent or stop my boss docking pay for smoke breaks.’

Back in my #hospo days I used to love a free drink at the end of (or during) a shift. When I became an academic I recognised the benefits that had been taken from me. Our research discusses how perks like free food & beer mask deeper issues. Read more here: theconversation.com/free-food-an...

New research shows successive NZ governments keep opting for expensive short-term fixes after floods and other disasters. But there are two other choices available.

Proudly announcing the launch of our report on the work of the Inverclyde Advice and Empliyment Rights Centre, first finding from our Amplifying Workers' Voice project improvingworkinglives.org

We wrote about this in the context of COVID-19, whereby workers faced double disenfranchisement as both migrants & independent contractors. Also how workers agentically enacted their own justices to navigate their precarity [in absence of institutional supports] www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Watch the excellent film Nae Pasaran ... vimeo.com/ondemand/nae...

🚨 New research alert! 🚨 Our multi-country study reveals gendered inequalities in #Africa's platform economy. Women face lower pay, greater precarity & sectoral exclusion—despite higher education. Time for policy action! Read more 👉 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #GigEconomy #GenderEquality

This is so bleak, but I also have a little antidote, which is an interview with Nick Southall on #disastercommunism being broadcast on 4ZZZ 102.1FM tmw morning 9-10am, & which will also be on the @radioreversal.bsky.social podcast The weather is unprecedented, so must be our resistance I guess?

Interested in how rezoning, relocating, raising, & other resilient housing programs have played out around the world? Join us tomorrow (10am AEST) for the webinar to discuss some of the trade-offs involved in getting to more disaster resilient housing. www.naturalhazards.com.au/news-and-eve...

On Radio Reversal this morning Anna, Jonno, & Nat will be talking about Cyclone Alfred, community-based preparation & recovery efforts, disaster communism, & the glimpses we get of living otherwise. Tune in from 9-10am on 4ZZZ 102.1FM, or subscribe to our podcast (live radio has the music though!)

📢 Australians working in the gig economy will now have greater protections, in a world dictated by trip ratings and reviews. Now new federal laws have come into effect, designed to ensure workers can't be just kicked off an app.

Our department at Australian National University is hiring in medical #anthropology. It’s Level B (continuing), equivalent to Assistant Professor. PhD must be in hand (not abd unfortunately). Closing end of Jan. Please spread the word! jobs.anu.edu.au/jobs/lecture...

Together, we and 11 other organisations are asking @Deliveroo, @Uber, and @JustEatTakeaway to take steps to significantly improve their transparency around the algorithms they use to manage their workforce. #TimeToDeliverAnswers privacyinternational.org/advocacy/550...

‘Domestic workers and day laborers, who are predominantly immigrants, face unique burdens during wildfires because their jobs are often paid by the day and offer few social protections’ - further underscoring need to enact stronger protections for low-wage workers www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Late last year, Woolies warehouse workers went on strike for 17 days. Now the company says it has sacked two workers and is investigating dozens of others over alleged conduct during the industrial action. Several workers told me they feel it is “100%” retaliation www.theguardian.com/business/202...

The LA Fires have reminded us that under a changing climate, we all may be more at risk than we realise. We discuss the implications in The Conversation & offer some actions all Australian's can take to better understand their risk & make homes more resilient. theconversation.com/the-la-fires...

"A new payment system brought in by YoungOnes, which supplies “freelance” retail assistants to many well-known high street stores, charges gig workers 4.8% of their earnings to be paid in one minute or 2.9% to be paid in three days." www.theguardian.com/business/202....

Catch up on the stories shaping tech and the environment around the world this year restofworld.org/collection/t...

We write: “Wall Street’s takeover of US health-care infrastructure and Silicon Valley’s introduction of gig nursing apps are a dangerous duo that is eroding our health-care system and eviscerating our ability to take care of each other.”

In the platform economy, algorithms often obscure how platforms extract value from workers, masking the ways workers' efforts translate into profit, writes Atieh Razavi Yekta. www.techpolicy.press/the-flexibil...

Large retail brands inc Urban Outfitters, Lush, Gymshark & Uniqlo are recruiting “freelance” shop assistants through gig apps, lacking most employment protections & sometimes having to apply for new shifts each day, to staff their stores during the festive period www.theguardian.com/business/202...

World-class investigative journalism by Ghada al Sharif for @torontostar.bsky.social: 6 weeks undercover as an UberEats worker. Exposes the reality of this sub-minimum-wage ($1.74/hr) exploitation: thestar.com/business/i-w.... City & labour regulators can't pretend this isn't happening. #canlab

Increasingly more people who never had to think about their risk profiles are now confronted with the grim reality of being uninsurable. The impacts of climate change have moved from an absent concern to a sudden danger as the climate crisis => financial crisis => social crisis => political crisis.

Universities in Australia have undergone a seismic shift, moving from public institutions dedicated to knowledge and community to entities run increasingly as private businesses. Central to this change is the rise of the vice chancellor as a highly paid executive figure. www.afr.com/work-and-car...

How climate risks are driving up insurance premiums around the US – visualised www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Great funded PhD opportunity in the UK

Behind the empty shelves at #Woolworths is a conflict with implications for the #futureofwork, #technology & workers’ rights - my latest for The Conversation on the ongoing #strikes around Australia - theconversation.com/the-dispute-...

The NZ government’s decision to slash funding for humanities and social sciences is an act of fear by hapless right-wing reactionaries. This is culture war politics dressed up as economic reform a short-sighted move that sacrifices the long-term prosperity of a nation for cheap ideological points.

I want a cooperative university that we run. Fair and transparent pay and governance, non-hierarchical and inclusive, dedicated investment in teaching and local community, purpose-driven and functional. We need a new vision grounded in reality.

For anyone looking for an introduction to food systems, Fuel to Fork is an excellent place to start. It finds an elegant way to introduce a complex topic so it's accessible without dumbing things down. Also, an amazing list of contributors. open.spotify.com/episode/57wN...

Interesting workaround: 'people start calling about putting on a hedge. “If a hurricane hits the county, I want to hedge $20,000... $100,000”... they want something that pays fast, with clear resolution criteria... something to be underwritten because the insurance companies are not doing it.'

Another nudge to ease the exodus from Twitter/X: A starter pack of interdisciplinary voices on Bluesky exploring the intersection between employment relations and labor inequalities. Feel free to suggest more people to add to the list!