Platformisation 2027
Consequences on occupational safety and health
INRS carried out a foresight exercise on platformisation and its impacts on occupational safety and health in 2027.
Several scenarios and three activity sectors (health, retail, interior construction) were examined.
This foresight work conducted by INRS highlighted a certain number of points which require vigilance:
- The organisation of platforms and how they operate complicate the application of the principles of prevention such as risk assessment and risk elimination.
- Freelance workers that work for these platforms are particularly exposed to certain psychosocial risks factors: work intensification, little autonomy, decline in social relations, insecurity of work situations, etc.
As well as new opportunities:
- In certain sectors, such as interior construction, this phenomenon could contribute to improving work conditions. Platforms can in fact become a useful tool for artisans in their work organisation, preparation of their contracts and management of their relations with clients.
- Tomorrow, platforms’ innovation capacity could be used to ensure a high level of worker health protection. They could become prevention relays, by deploying safety standards or safer work equipment.
INRS’s work shows platforms’ the value of committing in the long term to an occupational risk prevention approach. Today, these platforms are focused on the optimisation of “the customer experience”. INRS invites them to invest more in improving the “worker experience” and include occupational health as early as possible in new organisations.