A new Opinion Paper by the PES Network sets out a number of ideas and suggestions to adapt regulatory and support systems to the constant increase of platform work. The publication aims to contribute to ongoing discussions at European level on the need for further action on this topic.

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The opinion paper recognises that new forms of work, such as platform work, offer both opportunities and challenges for workers, employees and social welfare systems. Public employment services (PES) are particularly knowledgeable and affected by these issues.

Based on this experience, the PES Network paper specifically calls for:

1. national and European (legal) frameworks within which digital platforms can operate – such frameworks should include business regulations, provide transparency and give workers control over their own online reputational data;

2. initiatives to define the employment status of platform workers – in order to provide legal certainty for platform workers and clarify the support to which they may be entitled;

3. intensified discussions on the challenges and risks for the European welfare state – which currently tends to favour those in traditional forms of employment;

4. a monitoring framework for future developments of the platform economy – to improve transparency, analysis and understanding of this growing sector; and

5. the inclusion of (potential) platform workers in training schemes – given the importance of upskilling activities to meet current and future labour market needs.

The PES Network will continue to provide its expertise to ongoing discussions at European level  – notably in the context of the European Commission’s 2020 Work Programme which aims to propose ways “to improve the labour conditions for platform workers”.

The PES Network is supporting ongoing transnational exchange between PES through a Working Group on New Forms of Work. For additional information, see a background paper on ‘Platform work’ produced in this framework.