Cross-Regional Events on Platform Work

The last event was organised in cooperation with FES France, FES Greece and FES Italy aimed to address the issue of platform work and discuss the current challenges for platform workers and Trade Unions in France, Greece, Italy and Germany.

The platform economy has been expanding in France, Greece, Italy and Germany in the last decade. In the case of France and Greece new legislations have been adopted in the platform work context. In France, platform companies have to report information to tax authorities on identification details about the platform operator and users. In Greece, a new labour law has come into force in 2021, introducing a protective framework for platform workers and providing a definition for digital platforms, but there is still need for improvement. In Italy, the Legislative Degree has been passed in 2019, improving riders’ working conditions by giving them more guarantees and move towards approximating their status to that of employees. In Germany, despite multiple grassroots initiatives address­ing the rights of platform workers, the public debates have been focusing more on data protection at the workplace. Various parties and trade unions have been calling for an employee data-protection law in addition to the require­ments laid down in the GDPR.

However, many platform workers are still working under precarious conditions. At the European level, a new Directive on Platform Work is still in the process of negotiation and the subject of implementation into the national law in the upcoming years.

Recording of the event and further information are available here.