ABSTRACT Platform work in general requires workers to apply specific strategies to stay afloat. In Poland, platform work is a complex system of mutual relations and interdependencies between transnational corporations, national regulators, service providers, intermediaries and platform workers. Based on thirty-one in-depth interviews with Uber drivers in Poland and two expert interviews with fleet partners, this article presents the working strategies adopted by platform workers and looks at how the historical experience of communism may shape responses to twenty-first-century global capitalism. The analysis shows that an adequate remuneration can only be made by adopting the strategy called kombinowanie , a combination of small cheating, fiddling and exploiting loopholes in the law.

ABSTRACT The SARS-COV-2 virus has changed all spheres of life as we know it. This article considers the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the gig economy sector, in particular on the work of bicycle couriers in Poland. The main research question is whether in this case the impact is positive (it is a ‘good’ occupation during the pandemic) or negative (gig economy has suffered the consequences of the lockdown just like all other sectors). In order to answer this question, I conducted 20 semi-structured online interviews with Glovo couriers in March and April 2020 and analysed 1300 posts on their internet forum. The analysis of the research material makes it possible to conclude that in the period of the pandemic and the lockdown of the Polish economy, working as a courier was at least a partial ‘remedy’ for the problems on the labour market. The couriers themselves generally did not feel the negative impact of the coronavirus on their occupational situation.