Platform Economy

As countries approach the final deadline to put the platform work directive into action, workers have testified as to how it will help end “anxiety” over low pay, accidents and algorithmic management. Platform workers, trade union representatives, policymakers and academics from all 27 EU member states gathered in Cyprus for the fourth edition of Platforum, the flagship event on platform work organised by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).

Brussels, 14 October 2025 To: Members of the ad-hoc working group on Platform Work Dear Colleagues, We would like to inform you that the online meeting originally planned for 30 October cannot take place as scheduled. The ILO Office has arranged an informal consultation between governments and social partners on that same date. The meeting is therefore rescheduled to 3 November at 11:00 CET.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is today launching a guide to help workers prevent the abuse of algorithmic management and put the human back in control in their workplaces.   ‘Negotiating the Algorithm: A Trade Union Manual’ is a comprehensive guide for unions in how to ensure workers’ rights, pay and conditions are protected in the age of algorithmic management.

Negotiating the Algorithm - Trade Union Manual The proliferation of algorithmic management practices risk significant harm to workers' rights and terms & conditions.  This trade manual explains how workers and unions can control and limit algorithmic management to ensure that company algorithms are not used to facilitate exploitation.  The manual answers the following questions:

Brussels, 3 September 2025 To: Members of the ad-hoc working group on Platform Work Dear Members,

This is a call for a subcontractor to provide expertise for the updating of the website Digital Platform Observatory in the framework of the implementation of the ETUC Fair Platforms project. The ETUC will publish the call on its website on 15 April 2025. The deadline for submission of bids is 12 May 2025 at noon (12:00). All information are in the PDF document attached.  

This is a call for a subcontractor to provide expertise in the framework of the implementation of the ETUC Fair Platforms project. The deadline for submission of bids is 24 February 2025 at noon (12:00). All details are in the PDF document attached.

This is a call for a subcontractor to provide expertise in the framework of the implementation of the ETUC Fair Platforms project. The deadline for submission of bids is 24 February 2025 at noon (12:00).  All details are in the PDF document attached.

ETUC's next steps towards fair platform work Discussed at the Executive Committee meeting of 24-25 June 2024   The Directive on improving working conditions in platform work is to be finally adopted after a lengthy process and after the fight between progressive governments, MEPs and trade unions representing workers' voices, and liberal governments who sided with platforms enchanted by their promises to offer jobs at the cost of dismantling the European labour and social rights framework.

Trade unions are calling on EU member states to waste no time in putting the platform work directive into action at national level. Millions of workers have been forced into bogus self-employment by platform companies, meaning they miss out on their most basic rights as workers such as the minimum wage or sick pay.  The directive adopted today by the EU Council will mean: 

Brussels, 24 October 2024 To: Member of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Platform Work To: ETUC Member Organisations Dear Colleagues, We are reaching out to ask for your help again with the dissemination of the survey on algorithm management.

Delivery workers say the platform work directive could stop them being treated as a “slave to an algorithm” if it is properly implemented by national governments. The directive is expected to be given the final green light by the Council shortly, meaning member states need to begin putting its improvements into their national law. 

In a historic move, the European Parliament has today adopted the Platform Work Directive, a major victory for millions of people working through digital platforms. This directive ensures that they will finally obtain minimum wages, sick pay, and other essential employment safeguards. Key Provisions:

This is a call for a subcontractor to provide expertise in the framework of the implementation of the ETUC Fair Platforms project. More specifically, this call for tenders relates to the drafting of a study on algorithmic management and access to information in platform work. The deadline for submission of bids is 20 May 2024 at noon (12:00). All details are in the PDF document attached

This is a call for a subcontractor to provide expertise in the framework of the implementation of the ETUC Fair Platforms project. More specifically, this call for tenders relates to the drafting of a forecast study in the field of platform work. The deadline for submission of bids is 20 May 2024 at noon (12:00). All details are in the PDF document attached

Platform Work Directive: a milestone towards innovation that delivers for all.  Edited version published on Social Europe on 28th March 2024

Millions of people working through digital platforms are set to finally obtain minimum wages, sick pay and other employment protections following the adoption of the platform work directive today by EU member states.  Trade unions were successful in including the presumption of employment with the reversal of the burden of proof. Instead of individual workers going through lengthy court processes to prove they are a worker, it will now be up to the platform corporations to prove they are not employees. 

Dear Prime Minister Kallas, I am reaching out to you on behalf of working people and trade unions across Europe to ask you to support the Directive on Improving Working Conditions in Platform Work Your support, Estonia’s support, is the decisive factor for the adoption of the Directive. I understand that your government will decide closer to the vote in EPSCO on Monday 11th of March on its position.

Brussels 06/03/2024   Dear Mr Arras, Dear Mr Pozzana,  Over the past two years, we have met on several occasions at events related to the advocacy for the Platform Work Directive. 

Overwhelming majority of EU member states have been held back in bringing in protections for delivery riders, taxi drivers and carers among others. Millions of workers will continue to be forced into false self-employment after a small number of national governments torpedoed the chance to find a deal on the platform work directive. Exactly 799 days since the Commission proposal, representatives of the French, German, Greek and Estonian governments vetoed the agreement found in trilogue negotiations between the EU institutions last week.

Urgent call to reconsider the Presidency Proposal on the Directive on Improving Working Conditions in platform economy Letter sent to Pierre-Yves Dermagne, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy and Employment   Dear Minister Pierre-Yves Dermagne, We address you this letter at the beginning of the Belgium Presidency, which we hope will be a successful one.

The Council under the leadership of the Belgian presidency of the EU must deliver a strong platform work directive as a first step towards ending precarious work and returning to the social Europe envisioned by Jacques Delors. That is the call Esther Lynch, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), made in Namur at the first meeting of employment and social affairs ministers under the Belgian presidency, welcoming the focus put on quality jobs and on the European Pillar of Social Rights.

The EU Council today failed to approve the outcome of trialogue negotiations on the platform work directive. Responding to the decision, ETUC Confederal Secretary Ludovic Voet said: “A balanced agreement giving the most basic rights to platform workers is being held up for no good reason based on the objections of a small minority. "This sends the wrong message to hardworking taxi drivers and delivery workers during their busiest period of the year.

Millions of workers who have been wrongly classified as self-employed and deprived of their basic rights stand to benefit from the platform work directive agreed today. The ETUC calls on Member States to adopt this agreement and ensure its thorough implementation and enforcement. Trade unions have been on the streets and in the courts to win recognition and better conditions for platform workers. This directive will give important legal backing to platform workers to be properly recognised and protected as workers.

Dear Ambassadors, I am addressing you again on behalf of the European Trade Union Confederation, representing the interests of workers across Europe.