Why is the new directive on platform work important?

Individuals providing goods and services to clients or customers through digital platforms are referred to as platform workers. Platform work has been heavily criticised as workers are neither covered by unemployment benefit systems nor protected by social safety nets. Those are not false accusations given that 55% of platform workers earn less than the net hourly minimum wage and 41% of their working time is unpaid.

The employment base of the platform economy expanded significantly during the pandemic, exposing the flaws of its structure to a wider audience. In 2022, over 28 million people were working for digital platforms, but only 7% of platform workers were classified as employees.  About 5 million people were wrongly classified as self-employed when they should have been considered employees.

Misclassification is one of the main motivations behind the current proposal which introduces a two-fold improvement. First, the proposal develops a criterion to assess the correct employment status of platform workers. Second, it establishes rules on the use of AI in the workplace. It tries to ensure a balance between enabling workers to enjoy the flexibility of platform work and the social protections needed for a fair labour market. 

However, the proposed directive does little to improve the rights of the self-employed beyond an attempt to regulate algorithmic management. EU labour markets are designed around fulltime employment and the proposal simply tries to fit platform work into an existing framework.

The number of platform workers is expected to reach 43 million by 2025 in an asymmetric expansion and the current proposal might not be relevant for the 15 million new workers expected to enter the platform economy in the next two years. The impact of technology on labour markets must be explored further to ensure that the digital economy works for everyone everywhere.

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