Platform Work is dangerous - Addressing Occupational Safety and Health risks in the platform economy
As million of workers now depend on platform-mediated labour for their livelihoods, the organisation of platform work too often comes at the expense of workers' health, safety and dignity.
This manual shows that the risks faced by platform workers are neither accidental nor unavoidable. They are the direct result of business models built on cost externalisation, algorithmic management and the systematic misclassification of workers as self-employed. Physical injuries, psychosocial stress, fatigue, exposure to violence, and the long-term health impacts of insecure and intensified work are not side effects of digitalisation; they are predictable outcomes of a regulatory vacuum that allows platforms to evade responsibility.
With the adoption of the Platform Work Directive, Member States now have a unique and time-limited opportunity to correct structural injustices in the platform economy. Against this background, this manual is a tool for unions to develop an OSH-specific strategy that will help them lead the way.
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Strategic Foresight - Which workers are vulnerable to Uberisation?
“Uberisation” is the spread of digital labour platforms across the economy. It presents serious risks to the quality and security of jobs in Europe, as it is associated with insecure and low-pay, limited or non-existent social protections; opaque algorithmic management practices; intensive data surveillance; and the flouting of government regulations including labour laws.
To help trade unions anticipate and respond to these developments, the report highlights the need to identify sectors that are already affected or vulnerable to uberisation, and to understand the economic, technological and political factors shaping this trend. While it's difficult to predict companies’ future business strategies, it is possible to recognise recurring patterns in how Uberisation takes hold.
The report proposes a set of ten key indicators that characterise the platform business model and can be used to assess an industry’s susceptibility to Uberisation. These indicators form the basis for a practical tool to support trade union foresight and action.
The full report (including executive summary) can be accessed here:
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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:
- What is algorithmic management and what are it's key functions and risks?
- How can trade unions 'negotiate the algorithm'? What role does collective agremeents play?
- What does the EU Platform Work Directive means for platform workers' algorithmic rights? How can platform workers' make best use of this law?
- How can workers recover and analyse information on how they are algorithmic managed? What are the best data tools available to help workers do this?
- How can unions develop their training and infrastructure capacity in data and algorithmic management?
The full report (including executive summary) can be accessed here:
Click here to read and download the report
The reports are published in the framework of the ETUC Fair Platforms project, co-funded by the EU under call SOCPL-2023-INFO-WK