Resolving Disputes in Mediated Gig Work: Evidence from Online & Offline Labor Market Intermediaries

Scholars of workplace disputes have mostly focused on alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in standard employment. With the context of work changing, disputes in mediated “gig” work should be subject to scholarly analysis as well. To examine factors influencing the dynamics of ADR in mediated labor markets, we focus on intermediary dispute handlers and the relationships these private regulators have with dispute parties. Building on the ethnography of disputing literature, we uncover how, depending on the structure of intermediaries’ marketplaces, dispute handlers may frame their third-party role differently and influencing the impartiality of their ADR processes. The paper illustrates this point, drawing on fieldwork inside a digital labor platform and a temporary staffing agency. Existing explanations focus on the promise of impartiality of ADR by an external third party. Using interview, observational, and archival data, we analyze third-party roles in mediated labor markets and posit that impartiality is linked to marketplace structure.