Working conditions in the platform economy.

New evidence from the 2021 ETUI Internet and Platform Work Survey

Hybrid conference on 17 February 2022 (10:00-15:15 CET)

The pandemic seems to have accelerated the expansion of all kinds of platform work and at the same time, platform work is being increasingly associated with difficult working conditions, health and safety risks, and inadequate levels of income for those that rely on it as a source of living. Improving the conditions of platform workers became a topic of great interest in the EU, especially so in the context of the European Pillar of Social Rights. The political process culminated in December 2021 with a proposal by the European Commission of a directive on improving working conditions in platform work. The initiatives to improve the situation of platform workers came in the context of a large body of evidence on the working conditions in platform work. However, there is still a lack of representative comparative evidence on the extent of platform work and the characteristic of workers who engage in it.

Back in 2018, the ETUI launched the first wave of its Internet and Platform Work Survey which avoided the methodological problems that come from the reliance on self-selected online samples of inconsistent quality.

At this hybrid event, some of the key insights from the second wave of this survey conducted in fourteen EU countries in Spring 2021, will be presented and discussed with other researchers involved in measuring of the platform economy. The second session will focus on the implications of the expansion of the platform economy and its modes of organising work and employment for the future of work more broadly. And last but not least, European policy makers as well as trade union representatives will share their assessment on the recent developments related to the Directive on improving working conditions in platform work, and will enter in debate with each other, as well as with the audience.

For the latest draft agenda please click here. 

To register, please click here. Participation is possible both in the conference venue (DoubleTree by Hilton Brussels City) and online. You will receive more information upon registration.