Workers' Voice for more democratic participation

Among the demands of a just transition and the need to make the Green Deal a Social Deal, the question of worker involvement becomes ever-present: ensuring real workers' voice, information, consultation, and participation; that is, democracy at the workplace. And among the many areas in which this voice is challenged, one that particularly stands out is platform work, were the digitally-mediated management techniques (algorithms and mobile apps) are used to provide different services to consumers, such as food delivery or transport, escaping the traditional boundaries of what is considered traditional employment.

The issue of the consideration of platform workers as self-employed or employees (and its deep implications for their social protection and working conditions) is currently hotly debated at all levels, including strikes, court rulings, and legislation attempting to protect their status.

For this purpose, the Workers' Voice category of the EESC is organising a meeting to debate this important topic, and extract lessons on where to move forward in both social dialogue and legal initiatives. The meeting will start with the presentation of the study 'The definition of worker in the platform economy', commissioned by the EESC Workers' Group, by their authors Pablo Sanz and Tania Bazzani, where they will expose the findings of the study in both the state of play and the proposed legal definition. This will be followed by a presentation of the ETUC ongoing project on the establishment on workers' representation and social dialogue in the platform economy by ETUC Advisor Ignacio Doreste, and followed by a debate with the members of the Category.

The second panel will delve deeper into the current situation of platform workers, counting both with researchers on the topic providing the latest findings on the state of play, Valeria Pulignano, and Steve Rolf, and then Sabine van Veelen and Mario Grasso, who will explain the situation 'on the ground', followed as well by a debate with the members of the category.