The research project ‘Social Protection for Platform Workers at the EU Level’ that started in June 2022 is a continuation and further development of the research project ‘Social Law 4.0: New Approaches for Ensuring and Financing Social Security in the Digital Age’. Results of the new project were presented at the 8th Regulating for Decent Work Conference ‘Ensuring decent work in times of uncertainty’ from 10 to 12 July 2023 at the ILO in Geneva.
Background and Research Objective
Up until now, platform workers in the EU Member States generally do not enjoy social security protection, because they are not considered employees in accordance with the respective legal requirements for an employment relationship.
Against this background, it is the overall aim of this research project to address social protection for platform workers at the European level. The European Commission proposal for a Directive on improving working conditions of platform workers of 9 December 2021, which is currently going through the legislative procedure, seeks amongst other things to improve social protection for persons performing platform work. An analysis of the approaches to social protection in the Draft Directive as well as in other EU documents issued during the legislative procedure is at the heart of this project. The most important questions in this context are the provision of a rebuttal presumption of an employment relationship with binding force also for national social security institutions, the transferability of social security entitlements and the extension of access to social protection to platform workers.
Special attention is paid to voluntary payments of digital labour platforms for the social protection of platform workers. In certain cases, platform providers voluntarily provide social benefits to platform workers. The paper compares such practices with manifestations of corporate social responsibility concerning social welfare. Changes in the business model of platform work in relation to social protection as a result of issued court decisions on employee/worker status of platform workers in certain EU countries are also taken into account. In addition, empirical studies concerning the reasons of platform workers for undertaking this type of work and the question as to what form of employment (employee/self-employed person) they would prefer are also investigated.
The research project adopts doctrinal legal research methods and considers existing empirical evidence in order to give concrete and detailed examples. The undertaking seeks to contribute to the literature and the findings on how to extend and improve social protection for platform workers and on how to adapt social security systems to new forms of work. In addition, it investigates whether it is possible to opt for new regulatory approaches at the European level.
Project Outcomes
In accordance with a position of platform companies that they are a mere marketplace and not an employer, platform workers in the EU Member States until now generally do not enjoy social security protection. However, sometimes platforms decide to provide some social benefits themselves or via private insurance companies to low-skilled on-location platform workers (for whom platform work is the main source of income), who are most likely bogus or dependent self-employed. Social risks that are covered by such schemes are e.g. accidents at work, sometimes childbirth, and in the past years (especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic) also sickness.
The most widespread form of voluntary social protection by platform companies is the insurance against accidents at work. Some platforms have their own insurance (e.g. Deliveroo). Many platforms conclude contracts with different private insurance companies. Some platforms regulate that the costs of the insurance must be carried by the platform workers themselves (e.g. Deliveroo, Uber), while other platforms provide that injury insurance comes at no cost for their workers (e.g. Glovo). A practice of provision of sickness benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic shows that platforms that voluntarily provide some form of social protection reserve the right to withdraw these benefits at their discretion. In general, the analysis of such regulations demonstrates their fragmented and unstable character.
The proposal for a Directive on improving working conditions in platform work considers as a possible way of improvement of social protection of self-employed platform workers the provision of social protection via platforms. According to the Draft Directive, the provision of social benefits or the payment of social benefits to self-employed platform workers should not be regarded as determining elements for the existence of an employment relationship. The analyses of empirical evidence demonstrate that platform providers rather offer some social protection via private insurance companies than via participation in the mandatory social security systems. However, private insurance products are not within the scope of the Council Recommendation of 8 November 2019 on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed (2019/C 387/01) which is used as a benchmark in the Proposal for a Directive on improving working conditions in platform work. This means that the principles of this Recommendation concerning formal and effective coverage, adequacy and transparency (including transferability of entitlements) do not apply to private insurance schemes.
An analysis of the literature and empirical studies has allowed to systematise different reasons that play a role in the decision of platform companies whether and to what extent they provide social benefits. The main function of the voluntary provision of social benefits is to avoid reclassification of bogus self-employed platform workers into employees and prevent future possible litigations concerning their employment status. Related to this is also the aim of preventing state regulation in this field. Such regulations try to replace the mandatory labour and social law regulations at national level; they erode the principles of financing of social security schemes and simultaneously restrict access to statutory social security schemes for employees. Furthermore, they create an additional incentive for other employers to outsource work to self-employed persons and to attract them with particular social benefits.
Instead of providing such an opportunity to platform providers, the Draft Directive on improving working conditions in platform work should promote the participation of platform providers in risk-sharing through the mandatory social security systems that would also enhance the financial sustainability of the statutory social security schemes in the digitalised world of work.