Letter: How the EU can best serve platform workers

As EU ministers approach crunch time negotiating the EU’s proposal on the platform work directive, they have a unique opportunity to secure protections for self-employed workers and establish the EU as a global leader in advancing workers’ rights, ending the debate on platform workers’ status.

While employment brings more social protections, it also brings rigidity in working patterns and loss of control. For people offering their services on platforms, flexibility and control have always been the primary attractions and we have long advocated for rules that provide couriers with the benefits and protections they deserve alongside the independence they want.

The solution lies in protecting the flexibility of genuine self-employment while encouraging measures that improve working conditions in a manner that is compatible with on-demand work. However, the platform work directive focuses almost exclusively on who is an employee and who is not and does little to improve the rights of the self-employed. Ministers should take the time to get this right and not sacrifice the chance to improve the situation for the sake of a quick agreement.

The European Union has a once in a generation opportunity to create a progressive self-employment framework where platform workers enjoy the flexibility they want and the social protections they deserve. We urge them to take it.

Markus Villig
CEO, Bolt, Tallinn

Will Shu
CEO, Deliveroo, London

Niklas Östberg
CEO, Delivery Hero, Berlin

Dara Khosrowshahi
CEO, Uber, San Francisco

Miki Kuusi
CEO, Wolt, Helsinki