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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Ireland
In July 2021, the Irish Department of Social Protection published an updated version of the Code of Practice on Determining Employment Status. This concerns the classification of workers as self-employed or as employed, which determines the rate of Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) and tax that must be paid by the workers, as well as the level of social welfare and employment rights protections that workers are entitled to. The Code of Practice aims to provide a set of guidelines for informed decision-making over the respective employment status. The updated version includes new phenomena and trends within the labour market such as platform work.
The criteria for determining the employment status are as follows:
Mutuality of obligation: this concerns the question of whether and to what extent there is an obligation on one party to provide work and on the other party to accept it; this aspect is of primary importance in a sense that in case it does not apply, there is no employment relationship;
Substitution: this relates to the workers’ right to appoint somebody else as a substitute to perform their work in case they are not able to do it by themselves;
The enterprise test: this factor denotes the financial risk the workers are exposed to through performing the work and whether/to what extent the workers carry out the work as persons in business on their own account having the ability to profit from their own efficiency/entrepreneurial skill (or on the contrary suffering financial loss);
Integration: this aspect concerns the workers’ integration into the business, whether and to what extent workers are an integral part of a business (as employees) or whether they are performing work that is peripheral or accessory to it (as independent contractors);
Control: the last factor takes into account the degree of control held by the payer (employer) and the degree of independence held by the worker; this includes control over the worker and the power to decide what work should be done in what way and where; hereby, the right of the payer to exercise control is more relevant than whether they actually exercise this right.
Although the first factor is the most relevant, none of the aspects are decisive on their own but must be considered together and weighted against each other. This also means that in case a single factor is not found to comply with an employment status, the overall judgement can still be that an employment relationship exists.
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.
