ReadMe.txt for 'The Platformisation Of Work In Europe: Results from research in 13 European countries'.

This dataset supports the following publications:
* Huws, U., Spencer, N.H., Coates, M. & Holt, K. (2019) 'The Platformisation Of Work In Europe: Results from research in 13 European countries', FEPS - Foundation for European Progressive Studies, UNI Europa, Hertfordshire Business School, University of Hertfordshire.
* Huws, U., Spencer, N.H., Coates, M. & Holt, K. (2019) 'The Platformisation Of Work In Europe: Highlights from research in 13 European countries', FEPS - Foundation for European Progressive Studies, UNI Europa, Hertfordshire Business School, University of Hertfordshire.

Principal Investigator:
Professor Ursula Huws, Hertfordshire Business School, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, AL10 9AB, United Kingdom; u.huws@herts.ac.uk.

Co-Investigator and contact for queries relating to these data:
Dr Neil H. Spencer, Hertfordshire Business School, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, AL10 9AB, United Kingdom; n.h.spencer@herts.ac.uk.

This joint research project was launched in January 2016. It was carried out by the University of Hertfordshire in association with the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) and UNI Europa, the European services workers union. Co-funding for national surveys was provided by Unionen in Sweden, the TNO Research Institute in the Netherlands, The Chamber of Labour (AK) in Austria, ver.di and IG Metall in Germany, syndicom in Switzerland, the Fondazione EYU in Italy, the Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu) in Estonia, the Kalevi Sorsa Foundation and Service Union United (PAM), in Finland, the Felipe Gonzalez Foundation in Spain, Progresiva in Slovenia, the Masarykova demokratická akademie and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung office in Prague in Czechia, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in the UK and the Fondation Jean-Jaurčs in France. Fieldwork for the 14 surveys in the 13 countries was carried out by Ipsos MORI between January 2016 and May 2019.

License:
We release the following documents under a creative commons 'CC-BY 4.0' license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/):
* Readme.txt (this document)
* File Information for United Kingdom 2016 (UK1).pdf
* United Kingdom 2016 (UK1).csv
* United Kingdom 2016 (UK1).sav
* File Information for Sweden (SE).pdf
* Sweden (SE).csv
* Sweden (SE).sav
* File Information for Netherlands (NL).pdf
* Netherlands (NL).csv
* Netherlands (NL).sav
* File Information for Germany (DE).pdf
* Germany (DE).csv
* Germany (DE).sav
* File Information for Austria (AT).pdf
* Austria (AT).csv
* Austria (AT).sav
* File Information for Switzerland (CH).pdf
* Switzerland (CH).csv
* Switzerland (CH).sav
* File Information for Italy (IT).pdf
* Italy (IT).csv
* Italy (IT).sav
* File Information for Estonia (EE).pdf
* Estonia (EE).csv
* Estonia (EE).sav
* File Information for Finland (FI).pdf
* Finland (FI).csv
* Finland (FI).sav
* File Information for Spain (ES).pdf
* Spain (ES).csv
* Spain (ES).sav
* File Information for Slovenia (SI).pdf
* Slovenia (SI).csv
* Slovenia (SI).sav
* File Information for Czechia (CZ).pdf
* Czechia (CZ).csv
* Czechia (CZ).sav
* File Information for United Kingdom 2019 (UK2).pdf
* United Kingdom 2019 (UK2).csv
* United Kingdom 2019 (UK2).sav
* File Information for France (FR).pdf
* France (FR).csv
* France (FR).sav

Description of Data:
These data are from an innovative survey carried out fourteen times across thirteen European countries (with the United Kingdom being surveyed twice - in 2016 and 2019), revealing, for the first time, the extent and characteristics of platform workers. In the above mentioned reports, the survey results are complemented by in-depth interviews with a range of platform workers, shedding light on the realities of their working lives, including the stresses, fears and health hazards they face, as well as the satisfactions they experience.

The data are responses to questions asked in the surveys carried out by IPSOS Mori. Details of these questions are given in the file 'Hertfordshire Business School Platform Work Survey - Questions.pdf' and the 'File Information ...' files for each country along with the coding of responses for categorical variables.

Fieldwork was carried out on the following dates with age ranges and stratification as shown.

* UK 2016: 22-26 Jan 2016; ages 16-75; stratification: age, gender, region, social grade, working status.
* Sweden: 26 Feb - 7 Mar 2016; ages 16-65; stratification: age, gender, region and working status.
* Germany: 1-4 Apr 2016; ages 16-70; stratification: age, gender, region, working status and social grade.
* Austria: 1-4 Apr 2016; ages 18-65; stratification: age, gender, region, and working status.
* Netherlands: 22-27 Apr 2016; ages 16-70; stratification: age within gender, economic activity, region, working status.
* Italy: 31 Mar - 5 Apr 2017; ages 16-70; stratification: age, gender and region, with data weighted to these same variables, plus working status and economic activity to correct for any sample imbalances.
* Switzerland: 3-14 Apr 2017; ages 16-70; stratification: age, gender, region and working status.
* Estonia: 8 Nov - 10 Dec 2018; ages 18-65; stratification: age, gender, region and working status.
* Finland: 6-13 Dec 2018; ages 18-65; stratification: age, gender and region.
* Spain: 27 Nov - 5 Dec 2018; ages 16-65; stratification: age within gender, region and working status.
* Slovenia: 21 Feb - 5 Mar 2019; ages 18-55; stratification: age, gender and working status.
* Czechia: 19-25 Mar 2019; ages 18-55; stratification: age, gender, region and working status.
* UK 2019: 26 Apr - 1 May 2019; ages 16-75; stratification: age, gender, region, social grade and working status.
* France: 17-21 May 2019; ages 16-75; stratification: age crossed by gender, region and working status.

Each country in the survey has two data files associated with it. Those files with a '.sav' suffix are IBM SPSS Statistics data files. Those files with a '.csv' suffix are comma separated values versions of these '.sav' files.

For the purposes of archiving, variable names have been made consistent across datasets and the English language has been used (with the exception of variables with names starting 'cq10' which are country-specific). Similarly, labels for values of categorical variables have been made consistent across datasets and the English language has been used (with the exception of variables which have country-specific labels - 'region', 'qemp', 'qmar', 'qedu', 'qinc', 'pinc' - for Switzerland, the English language has been used as a neutral choice).

For anonymisation purposes, the following procedures have been applied:
1. Ages changed into age ranges (using same ranges as in report).
2. For each country, a tabulation of age-group/gender/region was created. Where any cell counts were less than 5, regions were merged until all counts were at least 5.

Notes on differences in data collected:
1. Variable STATUS_5 was only collected for those surveys from 2017 onwards.
2. Variable CQ03_14 was only collected for those surveys from 2018 onwards.
3. Variable CQ04 was only collected for those surveys in 2016 whereas variables CQ04_1, CQ04_2 and CQ04_3 were only collected for those surveys from 2017 onwards.
4. Variable CQ05_1A was only collected for those surveys in 2016 and 2017 whereas variables CQ05_1B, CQ05_9, CQ05_10, CQ05_11 AND CQ05_12 were only collected for those surveys from 2018 onwards.
5. Variables CQ09_15 AND CQ09_16 were only collected for those surveys from 2018 onwards.
6. Variables CQ10A_XX, CQ10B_XX and CQ10C_XX are country-specific. Any combining of variables across countries should be done by variable label rather than variable name.