Description
The Slovenian Association of Free Trade Unions (ZSSS) has drawn attention to the precarious working conditions of platform workers and unfair competition among platform businesses and aims to motivate authorities to implement stricter regulation, especially in the light of the acceleration of platform work due to the Covid-19 pandemic. On 16 November 2021, ZSSS published a resolution on fair working conditions in the platform economy. In particular, it stresses the need to include all workers via such platforms in social protection schemes, enable them to collectively negotiate their rights and organise, and refers to the central question of the employment relationship between employers and platform workers, which is often mediated via opaque algorithms.
ZSSS points out that platforms should provide information on their algorithmic management and that it should be under constant control. The trade union confederation furthermore demands that platform workers must be granted employee status in order to gain access to employment rights and social protection. For the purpose of law enforcement, ZSSS finds that inspection services (such as the Slovenian Labour Inspectorate) have to be trained adequately in order to monitor platform business practices (including health and safety precautions at work).
Among others this is a response to the recent ease of regulations in the taxi sector by the Road Transport Act, which allows ride hailing platforms such as Uber to enter the Slovenian market without a having a regulatory framework that ensures decent working conditions in the sector. The Slovenian government announced that it plans to analyse possible changes to platform work regulation, which are said to be tied to social dialogue negotiations.
- Keywords
-
social protection,
platform characteristics and business model,
health and safety
- Actors
-
Employee organisation
- Sector
-
No specific sector focus