On 9 December 2021, the European Commission launched a
proposal for a set of measures, including a draft Directive, to
improve the working conditions of platform workers.
Twenty-eight million people in the EU currently work through
digital labour platforms. Nine out of ten platforms that are active
in the EU (presumed to be around 500) classify their workers as
being self-employed, It seems the European Commission is convinced
that 1.72 to 4.1 million of these platform workers are wrongly
labelled as self-employed. This would mean they lack the protection
that traditional labour and employment law would grant them if
correctly classified. The Commission anticipates that if
reclassified, platform workers' earnings may be increased by
up to EUR 484 million per year. The increase in costs for the
digital labour platforms could run to EUR 4.5 billion EUR per year
– and Member States could benefit from up to EUR 4 billion in
increased tax and social security protection
