worldbank.org (07.09.2023) Good, inclusive jobs provide the surest path out of extreme poverty, while boosting shared prosperity for all. But as new technologies transform our global economies, we must expand our way of thinking about job opportunities in the developing world.  The online gig economy, in which digital platforms match workers to tasks posted by clients already accounts for up to 12 percent of the global labor market.

European Commission (06.09.2023) the Commission has proposed concrete steps to further digitalise the coordination of social security systems in Europe, in a dedicated Communication. The communication lays out actions to make access to social security services quicker and simpler across borders by making full use of digital tools, reducing administrative burden for citizens and business. This will improve the exchanges of information between national social security institutions and speed up the recognition and granting of eligible benefits across borders.

worldbank.org (2023-07-24) Jobs are crucial for individual well-being. They provide a livelihood and, equally important, a sense of dignity. They are also crucial for collective well-being and economic growth. Over the past decade, technology has fundamentally shifted traditional work patterns, creating new ways in which work is contracted, performed, managed, scheduled, and remunerated.

eurofound.europa.eu (2021) Technological change is accelerating as the capacity of electronic devices to digitally store, process and communicate information expands. Digitalisation is transforming the EU economy and labour markets: nearly one-third of EU workplaces are categorised as highly digitalised. What are the implications of the digital revolution for employment and work? And how might it affect social dialogue? Eurofound has produced a body of work to explore these questions.

hrmagazine.co.uk (17.08.2023) The gig economy continues to be a hot topic for discussion as the UK works on its position on fair work. Dan Cave uncovers the current climate and explores the alternatives.

Nasdaq (13.08.2023) India plans to roll out welfare measures for "gig" workers employed through platforms like Amazon, Uber and India's Zomato as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government prepares for elections, government and trade union officials said. The plan, part of the Social Security Code enacted in 2020, could include accident, health insurance and retirement benefits, said a senior government official with direct knowledge of the plan.

Benefits Canada.com (06.07.2023) Amid the growing gig economy, as well as workers’ calls for increased flexibility and a volatile labour market, there’s increasing demand for portable benefits.

The digital platform observatory is a joint initiative of ETUC, IRES and ASTREES, funded by the European Commission. It brings together trade unionists, experts, activists, specialists of workers representation and collective action in the  platform economy.

Gigpedia provides an overview of available information about the global platform economy. You will find information about existing legislation, court cases and ratings of labour standards for specific platforms. The data at Gigpedia was collected by leading research organisations in the field, including WageIndicator, Fairwork and Leeds Index of Platform Labour Protest. This includes Platform Labour Ratings, Platform Case Studies, Repository of Court Cases and Platform Economy News.

New regulations in Singapore will mean some of Asia’s largest fintechs will have to comply with stricter new rules on supporting their gig economy staff. But across the industry worldwide, these employees are missing out on vital access to financial services. Under the new rules, to be implemented from 2024, staff working for the likes of ride-hailing firms Grab and its competitor Gojek will be required to provide pension support and compensation for accidents that happen while working. There are currently more than 73,000 gig economy workers in Singapore.

consilium.europa.eu (12.06.2023) The Council is ready to start negotiations with the European Parliament on a new law that will help millions of gig workers gain access to employment rights. Today, ministers for employment and social affairs agreed on the Council’s general approach for a proposed directive to improve working conditions for platform workers. The proposal introduces two key improvements: it helps determine the correct employment status of people working for digital platforms and establishes the first EU rules on the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace.

Eurofound’s platform economy database provides information on 296 initiatives and court cases that exist or have been implemented in relation to activities in the platform economy. The database was last updated in February 2023 and provides metadata for each entry, such as geographical scope, year, type of initiative, actors involved, sector and companies concerned. Initiatives include legal instruments such as legislative changes or court decisions, as well as voluntary interventions undertaken by different stakeholders to address issues around platform work.

 IPS Journal (24.03.2023) Excessive reliance on algorithmic management has raised concerns regarding its opaque decision-making mechanisms and implication for workers

IPS Journal (21.01.2023) This year will be a crucial year for the platform economy. After the European Commission’s proposal on improving working conditions in platform work in December 2021 and long discussions in the European Parliament and Council in 2022, this year, the directive might be finally adopted – potentially impacting the lives of millions.

In the volatile and crisis-ridden European economic context, online work has grown in popularity through the adoption of technology that can help organise work, and manage and monitor workers. According to the ETUI report published in February, Juggling Online Gigs with Offline Jobs, online roles are more prevalent in European regions where there are very few opportunities to get into traditional jobs.

euobserver.com (08.03.2023) A new report published by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) highlights how platform work could be exacerbating inequality growing in the European labour market, and especially within member states themselves. Basically, it examined if regions with low availability of quality offline jobs led to more people taking more precarious online jobs. In the volatile and crisis-ridden European economic context, online work has grown in popularity through the adoption of technology that can help organise work, and manage and monitor workers.

europeandatajournalism.eu (27.03.2023) Delivery, transport, but also business services: more and more workers are opting for self-employed status by using online platforms to obtain assignments. This is a common phenomenon throughout the European Union.

The book deals with the phenomenon of platform work and contains national reports (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom), other more transversal reports dealing with the issue of fundamental (collective) workers' rights, as well as the applicable European legal framework. The idea of the book is to underline differences and similarities between the Member States' Systems and the UK System and to understand if there is a common ground of rights and protections for platform workers in the EU.

This module stresses specific challenges for the extension of social security to workers in new forms of employment, particularly platform workers, and explores some policy options, based on international experience and guided by ILO social security standards.

The European Parliament reached a deal on the platform workers’ directive, pending confirmation by the Employment and Social Affairs Committee on 12 December.

The deal is the outcome of months of lengthy negotiations on the platform workers’ directive, which seeks for the most part to clarify platform workers’ employment status.

“There is a deal, and I am very happy about it,” Elisabetta Gualmini, the left-wing lawmaker spearheading the directive, told EURACTIV.

euobserver.com (19.01.2023) Self-employed or employed? This question is at the heart of the negotiations of the proposal for an EU directive on improving the conditions of platform workers.

Home-delivery riders, or Uber-style app drivers are some of those who compose a sector estimated by the EU Commission to employ more than 28 million people. The number has been growing for years, and is expected to keep rising, reaching 43 million workers in the next two years.

EURACTIV.com (02.02.2023) After months of arduous negotiations, the much-debated and politically sensitive platform workers’ file was finally approved in plenary on Thursday (2 February), with 376 in favour and 212 against. The text enshrines a legal presumption of employment for self-employed platform workers and reinforces workers’ rights and protection in the face of algorithmic management.

socialeurope.eu (13.01.2022) After several reports by the labour inspectorate and contradictory judgments by the courts, in September 2020 the Supreme Court finally ruled that platform workers were employees and not self-employed workers—and that, therefore, the labour and social-security rights applying to all other workers had to apply to them as well.

ilo.org (05.01.2022) Digital labour platforms are now a vital part of contemporary life—they allow us to arrange a ride, order food and access a host of other services online. They accomplish this by connecting clients or customers with workers who undertake these tasks or “gigs”. The past decade has seen the global rise of “gig workers” or “platform workers”, with platforms like Uber, Gojek, Deliveroo, Rappi, Upwork and Topcoder. Digital labour platforms have created unprecedented opportunities for workers, businesses and society by unleashing innovation on a massive global scale.