Digital Intermediation and Precarity: Experiences of Domestic Workers in Chile’s Platform Labor Economy

This article explores the implications of digital labor intermediation platforms in paid domestic work (PDW) in Chile, a sector historically marked by informality and vulnerability. Drawing on a qualitative study conducted with members of the Federation of Domestic Workers’ Unions of Chile (FESINTRACAP), we analyze the narratives of workers who engage with digital platforms to access employment. We propose that these platforms, while expanding job search opportunities, reproduce and exacerbate precarious working conditions by weakening employment relationships, increasing surveillance through rating systems, and reinforcing structural inequalities such as gender, class, and migratory status. Using a grounded theory approach, we identify six thematic categories: (1) Access and Technological Transition, (2) Recruitment and Labor Matching Modalities, (3) Procedures and Technological Requirements, (4) Use of Ratings and Reputation, (5) Perceptions of Autonomy vs. Dependency, and (6) Lack of Regulation and Legal Guarantees. Our findings suggest that digital intermediation reconfigures labor relations under a neoliberal logic of individual responsibility while failing to provide institutional protections. We argue that the digitalization of labor intermediation in PDW deepens the sector’s historical patterns of invisibility and exclusion, highlighting the urgent need for regulatory frameworks that address the specificities of this type of employment.