Book Presentation “Social Law 4.0: Update: Innovative Approaches to Ensuring and Financing of Social Protection for Platform Workers in Europe”
Chair(s): Ulrich Becker (Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy, Germany), Olga Chesalina (Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy, Germany)
Discussant(s): Olga Chesalina (Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy, Germany)
Our special session proposal is dedicated to the presentation of the book project “Social Law 4.0: Update: Innovative Approaches to Ensuring and Financing of Social Protection for Platform Workers in Europe” which is expected to be published by Nomos Publishing House (Germany) in the coming months. This book is a continuation of the book project, that was published in 2021 (Becker, Ulrich/Chesalina, Olga (eds.), Social Law 4.0: New Approaches for Ensuring and Financing Social Security in the Digital Age, Nomos: Baden-Baden 2021).
Social law responses to labour market transformation driven by digitalization and the platform economy remain highly relevant. On the one hand, the specific nature of platform work, which can be characterized by its atypical self-employment status (which is often difficult to determine correctly), low pay, marginal engagements and a high proportion of unpaid work, creates barriers to accessing social security systems for them. On the other hand, new forms of self-employment and platform work in particular, pose different challenges for the financing of social security.
In this context, the overall goal of the update book is to provide insights into changes and new developments since autumn 2020 in the light of how access to social protection is actually achieved and how social protection is, or can be, financed. The book provides a legal comparison of innovations, developments and approaches at national and European level. The three-sectioned book includes six “country reports”, covering Belgium, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden and France. The other three chapters shed the light on European social law perspective and recent developments addressing the challenges of platform workers, the challenges for coordinating national social security systems in the EU and the challenges of taxing the digital economy in the EU. The final chapter provides a systematic legal comparison of developments concerning access to social protection and the financing of social protection. It analyses, inter alia, the responsibility of private actors for social protection, i.e. undertakings or platform companies. The chapter concludes with some proposals for future regulation and social policy.
In the proposed special session, we would present the main findings of our book project and discuss this very topical issue.
Presentations of the Special Session
Determination of the Social Protection Depending on the Employment Status of Platform Workers
Edoardo Ales1, Yves Jorens2, Gijsbert Vonk3, Philip Larkin4
1University of Naples Parthenope, 2Ghent University, 3University of Groningen, 4Northumbria University
This presentation outlines the judicial and legislative reactions concerning the determination of the social protection for platform workers depending on their employment status in different EU Member States (Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands) and in the United Kingdom. The reactions come in different ways: firstly, through case law and the interpretation of the existing provisions on the concept of employee and of self-employment, secondly through acts of Parliament and by changing those provisions. Reactions by the legislator, i.e. policy reactions have very different forms: from a reformulation of the legal definition of employed earners to procedural reactions, in particular presumption clauses, to the creation of new legal categories of economic activities, positioned somewhere between employment and self-employment.
Innovative Ways of Financing of Social Protection: The Role of Private Actors
Francis Kessler1, Annamaria Westregård2
1University of Paris I Panthe-on-Sorbonne, 2Lund University
The presentation examines some innovative ways of financing of social protection. Using France as an example, we analyse in how far platforms are now involved in the financing of social security for platform workers and discuss regulations and obligations of platform as set out in draft laws. In addition, some platforms already provide voluntarily a small number of social benefits to on-location platform workers. The voluntary provision of social benefits via platforms can serve different purposes. On the one hand, the provision of social benefits through private regulations and in collective agreements can improve the working conditions and social protection of platform workers. This way is more prevalent in Nordic countries. On the other hand, private regulations can be used as a strategy to avoid employer’s obligations in the field of social protection.
Recent EU Developments Addressing Challenges of Platform Workers and Taxation of the Platform Economy
Paul Schoukens1, Charlotte Bruynseraede1, Katerina Pantazatou2
1KU Leuven, 2University of Luxembourg
The presentation analyses EU initiatives and their potential for the improving the social protection of platform workers: 1) the Directive on improving working conditions in platform work, 2) the Directive on adequate minimum wages, and 3) the Guidelines on the application of Union competition law to collective agreements regarding the working conditions of solo self-employed persons. It also reflects on whether the existing instruments are sufficient to address the existing challenges and whether they really have the potential to provide adequate social protection for platform workers or whether (and if so, which) problems remain. In addition, the presentation examines the options for increasing the feasibility of social security systems and what can be learned from the European tax law in this context.
