Gendered Digital Labour: Unseen Work, Exploitation, and Tech‑Driven Inequalities

  • Panel
  • Grande Halle
  • Wednesday 20.05 — 16:00 - 17:15

Organising Institution

Law, Science, Technology & Society (LSTS)

Belgium

The Law, Science, Technology and Society (LSTS) Large Research Group of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) focuses on the articulations of law, science, technology, and society. It is an internationally recognised, highly networked, leading European centre of excellence, bringing together researchers who work on the regulation of data and of Artificial Intelligence (AI), (cyber-)security, health, constitutional rights and algorithmic discrimination, among many other aspects of the relation between law and society.
  • Academic 2
  • Business 2
  • Policy 2
Will the Platform Work Directive work, and for whom? As we have entered the last year of its transposition deadline, it is time to focus on gendered forms of digital labour, and which are the most urgent remaining challenges. This panel will look into novel rules on algorithmic data management and surveillance through the lens of gender, zooming into multiple types of digital labour and their regulation. Bringing together a variety of stakeholders, it notably discusses webcamming, and its moving relation with tech affordances and legal struggles; the advent (or not) of domestic work as platform work; and new manifestations of exploitation. In doing so, it will invite a reflection on the Platform Work Directive but also on the state of digital labour more broadly, while this gendered lens sheds a new light on specific or shared privacy issues.

Questions to be answered

  1. What is the status of the Platform Work Directive implementation?
  2. Which are the key challenges surrounding webcamming?
  3. Is domestic work being platformised?
  4. How does digital labour intersect with exploitation and what can be done about it?

Moderator

Gloria González Fuster

Law, Science, Technology & Society (LSTS) - Belgium

Prof. Dr. Gloria González Fuster is a Research Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)’s Faculty of Law and Criminology, and Director of the Law, Science, Technology and Society (LSTS) Large Research Group.

Speaker

Salomé Lannier

University of Luxembourg - Luxembourg

Salomé Lannier (she/her) is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg. Her research focuses on human exploitation, gender-based violence, and sex work. She is currently the PI of the project "PROTect against EXploitation: exploitative offences versus legitimate work in a digitalised labour market". Salomé is a doctor of law and criminal sciences, after defending in December 2023 her thesis on "New technologies and human trafficking," in joint supervision between the University of Bordeaux (France) and the University of Valencia (Spain). Salomé is the lead author of the report on the criminalisation of gender-based violence in Luxembourg for the International Association of Penal Law, and the editor for a special issue on the same topic at the Revue Pénale Luxembourgeoise.

Speaker

Mireia Llobera Vila

Universitat de València - Spain

Mireia Llobera is an employment lawyer and mobility advisor for the EMEA region with extensive international experience, specialising in international mobility, internal communication policies, negotiations with trade unions, diversity and inclusion, risk prevention, compliance and talent retention policy (benefits), amongst many other matters. Expert on the Mediation Council of the European Labour Authority (ELA), with proven experience in managing critical projects within the public administration, having held high-level public office, including that of Deputy Minister for Justice and Public Administration. She collaborates with international law firms to navigate various legal systems, particularly in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. She is also a lecturer at the University of Valencia, teaching EU law.

Speaker

Aída Ponce del Castillo

ETUI - Europe

Aída is a lawyer by training. She holds a master’s degree in bioethics and has obtained her European doctorate in law. At the Foresight Unit of the ETUI, her research focuses on the cross-boundary field between science and emerging technologies, especially with regard to ethical, social and legal issues, with a focus on AI. Additionally, she is in charge of conducting foresight projects. She is a member of the committee for the National Convergence Plan for the Development of AI, in Belgium. At the OECD she is a member of the working parties on biotechnology, nanotechnology and converging technologies, as well as on Al governance. She was previously Head of the ETUI Health and Safety Unit and coordinator of the Workers’ Interest Group at the Advisory Committee of Safety and Health to the EU Commission.

Speaker

Madeleine Thomas

Image Angel - International

Madelaine Thomas is the Founder and CEO of Image Angel. A survivor of image-based abuse herself, Madelaine built Image Angel as an intimate image abuse deterrence technology for fast paced, high-risk and high-resolution environments. Image Angel represents a new generation of technology, changing what is possible should harm occur. Her work sits at the intersection of lived experience, safety technology, and policy reform.