Platform economy database
Database of initiatives and court cases in the EU
Eurofound’s platform economy database provides information on 386 initiatives and court cases that exist or have been implemented in relation to activities in the platform economy. The database was last updated in February 2024 and provides metadata for each entry, such as geographical scope, year, type of initiative, actors involved, sector and companies concerned. Initiatives include legal instruments such as legislative changes or court decisions, as well as voluntary interventions undertaken by different stakeholders to address issues around platform work.
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The database currently contains 386 entries and was last updated in February 2024.
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France
Coursiers Bordelais is a cooperative enterprise of workers in the French transport sector. Each cooperator has a voice in decision-making, regardless of his or her share in the capital. It resembles a platform on which requesters can order local deliveries on bikes. The cooperative claims to refuse the exploitation of workers, while at the same time providing fast services for its customers and being profitable.
Scope of the initiative
Coursiers Bordelais unites platform workers in a cooperative to provide bike-delivery services. Coursiers Bordelais largely provide their services to professionals (parcels, flowers, etc.). The dispatcher (changing weekly) assigns the tasks according to the indicated preferred schedule. The bikers then carry out the deliveries respecting the schedule. All decisions (organization, salary, working conditions, etc.) are taken collectively, based on consensus. Coursiers Bordelais is part of CoopCycle and pays a percentage of their revenues to the organisation.
The cooperative puts a strong focus on social and solidarity values, aiming to ensure that all workers are treated fairly and equally. The platform workers are employees of the collective and have a permanent contract. All their revenues contribute to the common budget that is later used to cover common costs and the remainder is shared between employees. Employee salaries consist of two components: a fixed component and a variable component that depends on the individual platform worker’s contribution to the total revenue of the cooperative. All workers receive the legal minimum salary (salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance - SMIC), including a minimum of five hours of overtime, adding up to 40 working hours per week. Workers can do additional overtime if work is available. The salary typically varies between EUR 1,220 and EUR 1,400. 80% of the initiative’s revenue is used to finance the salaries of workers. Platform workers in Coursiers Bordelais have full access to social protection (unemployment insurance, sick leave, etc.), paid holidays, professional insurance and other benefits that are guaranteed to all employees in France. Workers have eight weeks of holidays per year, an expense account of EUR 100 per month for biking equipment and EUR 150 to 200 per month of lunch vouchers (depending on the number of days worked).
Scale of the initiative
The cooperative consists of 7 platform workers, all based in Bordeaux. Between its introduction in 2017 and July 2021 the workers have carried out 12 480 deliveries.
Strengths and weaknesses
Focusing on deliveries for professionals instead of meal delivery is one of the strengths of the initiative. The meal delivery market is very competitive and dominated by large players, who manage to retain very thin margins. This is not possible for small cooperatives. Moreover, the meal delivery market is very dependent on time – most orders happen during lunch or dinner time. This limits the hours worked for the platform worker, resulting in a low salary. Focusing on delivering goods to professionals instead of meal delivery allows riders to work more hours, thus having a higher total monthly salary compared to traditional big meal-delivery platforms, where delivery is usually concentrated around lunch and dinner only.
Another strength of the Coursiers Bordelais initiative is its cooperative status that ensures that workers get social protection, insurance, sick and annual leave etc.
At the same time, the cooperative remains small in scale and has limited growth opportunities linked to lack of access to capital.
The platform economy is one of those moving targets, which, despite receiving increasing media and policy attention, has proven difficult to regulate. Given the heterogeneity of employment relationships, business models, types of platform work and cross-border issues, this is not surprising.
Technological change is accelerating as the capacity of electronic devices to digitally store, process and communicate information expands. Digitalisation is transforming the EU economy and labour markets: nearly one-third of EU workplaces are categorised as highly digitalised. What are the implications of the digital revolution for employment and work?
The rapid rise of the platform economy has led to a marked transformation of European labour markets, and existing regulatory frameworks and voluntary initiatives have yet to catch up. While platform work offers opportunities for workers and employers and potentially contributes to innovation, economic growth and competitiveness in the EU, it has been criticised from the beginning because of the poor employment and working conditions often experienced by workers.
While 2020 may come to be seen as the year platform work gathered pace and started to go mainstream – thanks in large part to COVID-19 containment measures sparking an increase in food and grocery delivery – 2021 could be the year that regulation of platform work is set in motion.
