Rubricas de Seguimiento Programa Dual

The key concern with platform work is that it offers forms of employ- ment without standard contracts and leaves workers “without suffi- cient access to social protection due to their labour market status or the type of employment relationship” (European Commission, 2018a).

The emergence of platform workers can be viewed as a growing aspect of a broader challenge. Platform work can be viewed as an aspect of labour flexibility (section 4.3.2). Non-traditional, flexible forms of labour have been expanding at least since the 1980s, largely as a means of enabling firms to cope with uncertain demand and with technological change.

Surveys and studies show that platform workers face many chal- lenges, not only in terms of social protection, but also in terms of their overall earnings:

• Low wages: Wages earned via platforms are very low, with just a few segments of workers able to earn above middle level income (Codagnone et al, 2016). The average pay levels for the four plat- forms surveyed by Forde et al (2017) were significantly below min- imum wage in European countries, with a gap of up to 54.1 percent between platform wages and the national minimum wage in the case of France.

• Limited ability to save or to invest in pensions: the low earnings, together with statutory limitations, mean platform workers save

very little for pensions (Forde et al, 2017).

• Limited access to social protection schemes: platform workers are partly or fully excluded from many forms of social protection (see chapter 5.2). The majority of platform workers surveyed had no access to social protection schemes in relation to disability, old age, pregnancy, care or unemployment (Codagnone et al, 2016; Forde et al, 2017).

• Limitations on collective bargaining rights: to the extent that they are considered to be self-employed, platform workers typically lack the right to bargain collectively (Forde et al, 2017; Riley, 2017). • Intrusions on other rights: platform workers are also more vulner-

able to violation of privacy and to discrimination (Codagnone et al, 2016).

At the same time, the flexibility that these new forms of work embody can provide benefits to the firms that organise them and to those who perform the work. In many cases, workers who might otherwise be unemployed or underemployed have a new source of income. Workers might benefit from greater choice over the hours that they work. Any policies on platform work should therefore be carefully targeted so they do not needlessly undermine these potential and actual benefits.

References

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Atkinson, J. (1984) Flexibility, uncertainty, and manpower management, Institute of Manpower Studies/Institute of Employment Studies

Atkinson, J. and N. Meander (1986) Changing working patterns: How companies achieve flexibility to meet new needs, Institute of Manpower Studies/ Institute of Employment Studies Burson-Marsteller, Aspen Institute and TIME (2015) The Collaborative Economy Survey, available at www.burson- marsteller.com/ondemand-survey/

Cherry, M. and A. Aloisi (2018) ‘A Critical Examination of A Third Employment Category for On-Demand Work’, in N. Davidson, M. Finck and J. Infranca (eds) Cambridge Handbook on the Law of the Sharing Economy, Cambridge University Press

Codagnone, C., F. Abadie and D. Biagi (2016) The Future of Work in the “Sharing Economy” – Market Efficiency and Equitable Opportunities or Unfair Precarisation? JRC Science for Policy Report, Publications Office of the European Union

Eurofound (2018) ‘Platform Work’, available at https://www.eurofound. europa.eu/observatories/eurwork/ industrial-relations-dictionary/platform- work, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

Eurofound (2019) ‘New Forms of Employment’, available at https://www. eurofound.europa.eu/topic/new-forms- of-employment, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions

European Commission (2018a) ‘Proposal for a Council Recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed’, COM(2018) 132 final European Commission (2018b) ‘Impact Assessment accompanying the document Proposal for a Council recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the selfemployed’, SWD(2018) 70 final

Forde, C., M. Stuart, S. Joyce, L. Oliver, D. Valizade, G. Alberti, K. Hardy, V. Trappmann, C. Umney and C. Carson (2017) The Social Protection of Workers in the Platform Economy, Study for the EMPL Committee, European Parliament Directorate-General for Internal Policies, Policy Department A Economic and Scientific Policy

Huws, U., N.H. Spencer, D.S. Syrdal and K. Holts (2017) Work in the European Gig Economy: Research Results from the UK, Sweden, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy, European Foundation for Progressive Studies, UNI Europa and University of Hertfordshire

ILO (2016) Non-standard employment around the world – Understanding challenges, shaping prospects, International Labour Organisation ILO (2018a) ‘Disguised Employment/ Dependent self-employment’, available at http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/non- standard-employment/WCMS_534833/ lang--en/index.htm, International Labour Organisation

Pesole, A., M.C. Urzí Brancati, E. Fernández-Macías, F. Biagi and I. González Vázquez (2018) Platform Workers in Europe, JRC Science for Policy Report, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union

Petropoulos, Georgios (2017) ‘An economic review of collaborative economy, Policy Contribution 5/2017, Bruegel

Ridester (2018) ‘Uber Fees: How Much Does Uber ACTUALLY Take from Drivers?’ available at https://www. ridester.com/uber-fees/

Riley, J. (2017) ‘Regulating Work in the “Gig economy”’, Legal Studies Research Paper No. 17/30, Sydney Law School, University of Sydney

Sapir, A. (2006) ‘Globalization and the Reform of European Social Models’, Journal of Common Market Studies 44(2): 369-390

Sorokin, A. and D. Forsyth (2008) ‘Utility data annotation with Amazon Mechanical Turk’, 2008 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops Uber (2018) White Paper on Work and Social Protection in Europe, February

5 Social protection in the EU

today

In this chapter, we provide a broad overview of social protection poli- cies in the European Union and discuss why non-traditional workers (including the self-employed) are often excluded from effective social protection, taking into account the lack of statutory coverage and practical impediments. The classification of platform workers plays an enormous role in their entitlement to social protection under current law and is an illustration of the broader problems that can be expected as non-traditional forms of work continue to proliferate. We discuss efforts to broaden the approach to social protection in light of the growing diversity and complexity of forms of work, and reflect on the development of skills and the need for lifelong learning, which must surely represent a key element in any coherent policy response to the changes in the world or work.