Member states’ ambassadors failed to find a majority over a platform work directive deal struck last week, dealing a heavy blow to the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU and raising concerns the file may not get through before the end of the mandate.
Gig-economy companies Lyft, Uber, and Postmates are racing to file IPOs this year, a mad dash replete with ever-increasing multibillion-dollar valuations. But is the rush to start trading on the public markets also a sprint to evade compliance with current labor law?
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) welcomed a decision today by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe that should put an end to restrictions on collective bargaining for self-employed persons. The Ministers’ Committee’s decision endorses an earlier ruling by the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) following pressure by the Irish Trade Union Confederation (ICTU) and its affiliates, SIPTU, Equity, the Musicians Union of Ireland and National Union of Journalists, and supported by the ETUC.
This article is divided into three parts: the first part explains the definition of the economically dependent self-employed and proposes ideas for improving this definition of this dependency. The second part of this article is dedicated to the working conditions of the self-employed, while the last part compares the job satisfaction of the self-employed, employees and family workers.
While the Europe 2020 strategy actively promotes entrepreneurial self-employment as a means to create good jobs, policy makers at national and EU level are actively looking at better social protection for self-employed workers. Understanding this paradox requires looking beyond the ‘self-employed’ label and acknowledging it as an umbrella term covering a widely differing group of workers.
The Union of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia (ZSSS) has criticised an increase in funding by the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs for workers who want to become self-employed. The ZSSS claims that the ministry is promoting a precarious form of work, and that the ministry needs to focus on training for self-employed people. It also argues that the ministry is allowing the practice of bogus self-employment, which is rife in the construction sector, to go unchecked.
Smartphone car service Uber, a successful company example of the sharing economy, has spread to many EU Member States in recent years. However, many employers and unions are concerned about its challenge to fair competition for other businesses in the sector and about the erosion of working conditions for drivers. It remains to be seen whether there is some grounds for EU- level regulation in this field.
More evidence that this isn’t your parents’ labor market: 53 million Americans, or 34% of the nation’s workforce, qualify as freelancers, according to a new report.
B. Keller, and W. Nienhueser. Industrielle Beziehungen - Zeitschrift fuer Arbeit, Organisation und Management - The German Journal of Industrial Relations, 21 (1):
5–14(2014)