Strengthening platform work for all: a tale of two approaches

By Joanne Kubba, Uber

The critical role of platform work

Most of us have used an app to hail a ride, or order a meal. Millions do so every day. In a little more than a decade, Europe has become home to a thriving and competitive platform ecosystem with over two dozen innovative companies changing our lives and cities one app at a time. Online platforms have introduced new ways for businesses to connect with customers, and for people to access flexible work opportunities.

Change brings opportunity. Sector by sector, online platforms are moving our economies into the digital age. Food delivery apps give restaurants, couriers and consumers across the world access to new ways to do business, to work independently, and to enjoy good food everyday. Ride-hailing apps connect professional drivers to people needing a ride, reducing the need for private car ownership.

Addressing challenges in platform work

Change also brings new challenges. As the nature of work evolves, the role of platforms is to combine the provision of innovative services for those who want flexible work opportunities with adequate protections, while the role of governments is to ensure economic and social welfare and fair competition. This is more important than ever as the pandemic has exposed gaps in current safety nets.

For Uber, ensuring that drivers and couriers have protections when they need it has been a priority since 2018, when Uber’s partnership with AXA set the standard of protection, offering (at no cost) a range of insurance coverage including sickness, injury, and maternity and paternity payments for drivers and couriers across Europe. During the pandemic, Uber provided additional €8 million in financial support to thousands of couriers and drivers across Europe to ensure that they could socially distance when needed. But for platforms to continue doing more to ensure that workers are protected, regardless of the platform they choose to work on, a different approach is needed. An approach where legal clarity unlocks this type of protection.

What workers say they want: flexibility and better protections

Our vision for the future of the platform economy is to set a new standard for platform work. This needs to be grounded in the principles drivers and couriers say are most important to them: flexibility and control over when and where they want to work, earning a decent wage, access to relevant benefits and protections, and meaningful representation.

In virtually every survey Uber ran over the last decade, this autonomy is what drivers[1] and couriers[2] say they value most about platform work. Research from 2018 showed that 93% of drivers in the UK partnered with Uber to have more flexibility in their schedule and to balance work and family life[3], while 80% of drivers preferred flexible working over fixed hours. These results were reaffirmed by 2020 survey results[4] that found 89% of drivers in the UK said that flexibility was the most important reason they choose to drive using the Uber app.

As a multi-stakeholder dialogue platform, Reshaping Work has been instrumental in socializing innovative solutions and helping us take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

Is platform work compatible with the European social model? Some countries say yes, yet others beg to differ. And while we see great, innovative approaches in some parts of Europe, we are also seeing very alarming developments in others, hurting the thousands they were designed to protect, reducing opportunities for earners and choices for consumers, and hurting innovation.

Geneva: fewer jobs, lower economic activity

In Geneva, a series of court rulings have led to changes that have harm couriers, restaurants and platforms. As a result of the latest ruling, couriers could no longer partner with Uber as independents, and 1,000 individuals, nearly 80% of all couriers in the canton, lost access to earning opportunities through the Uber app. Those still using the Uber app enjoy less flexibility as they need to work under assigned shifts.

Those changes led to increased prices and a degraded delivery experience for consumers (with average waiting times increasing by six minutes). It also resulted in a 30% reduction in orders in just three weeks, significantly reducing income opportunities for couriers and restaurants using Uber Eats, with growth slowing down by 60%, when compared with the neighboring city of Lausanne.

Spain: longer hours, less pay

A similar story is unfolding now in Spain, where a national labor law for couriers, the so-called “rider law”, came into force in the summer of 2021, with the aim of providing delivery couriers with job security and predictable earnings. It achieved the opposite. By forcing an employment relationship onto platforms and previously independent couriers, it instead led to fewer economic opportunities, job losses, lower earnings, and decreased satisfaction among couriers in the country.

Over the last weeks, thousands of couriers have protested against the regulation, including courier organizations APRA, Asoriders, Repartidores Unidos o AAR, to no avail. Early indications on the effects of the law are far from positive; recent media reports (Business Insider, Wired, Radio Madrid) suggest that the average courier earnings have dropped significantly since the new law is in place.

Platforms in Spain struggle to balance a feasible business and a reliable service, leading to some platforms withdrawing entirely from the Spanish market. The effect will become even more prominent outside big cities; operating under the current model makes it very expensive to operate in smaller towns and suburbs where demand is lower and more patchy. Restaurants, couriers and the entire platform ecosystem in smaller cities are likely to be affected disproportionately.

France: ‘thinking in terms of rights, not status’

France, on the other hand, has chosen to think “in terms of rights, not status”, according to Secretary of State for European Affairs Clément Beaune. In order to ensure access to protections the French government has decided to use social dialogue to deal with the platform work challenge. Upcoming rules would allow drivers and couriers in France to be collectively represented, as well as create a new authority that would facilitate dialogue between platforms and workers.

The minister also recently commented that the goal of an EU reform should not be to “tip the world of platforms into the world of employment, that is not reasonable economically”, but rather introduce clear regulation dealing with the actual challenges faced by platform workers.

UK: legal clarity and more rights for platform workers

Outside the EU, but remaining in Europe, the UK has another approach leveraging its existing legal framework. The UK Supreme Court ruling provided a clear framework that allowed Uber to treat drivers as workers, a unique third classification under UK employment law which maintains flexibility, while increasing protections. That opened a new set of options with drivers earning at least the minimum wage when driving on the Uber app. They will also receive paid holiday time and those eligible will be enrolled into a pension plan. The legal clarity also paved the way for Uber’s recognition deal with a key UK trade union GMB, the first of a kind by a ride-hailing service, which enables formal representation for all drivers operating on the Uber app.

Most importantly though, these protections came without compromising the flexibility drivers want. In a consultation we ran with thousands of drivers following the verdict, two-thirds of the drivers told us they valued flexibility, while only 20% wanted more protections if it meant a loss of flexibility.

What can we do better?

As the European Commission gears up to introduce its EU-wide proposal on platform work, we can use learnings from these reforms to inform a constructive regulatory approach fit or purpose. Flexibility and independence are essential for platform workers, and fundamental for the entire ecosystem around platform work. There might be no need for a third status but it is clear that legal certainty and establishing a level playing field among the sector will unlock further benefits for all workers no matter which platform they choose to work on, while ensuring fair competition and promoting innovation. However, imposing an employment presumption and introducing a legal mechanism for reclassification, will lead to fewer work opportunities and increase litigation and legal uncertainty, instead of improving rights.

Europe’s greatest strength is bringing together such approaches and best practices from across the continent in order to tackle common challenges. That’s why we urge policymakers to look no further than Europe when designing policies to solve the platform work challenge. That’s how we can create a win-win solution for workers, for platforms and the entire ecosystem that leverages their services to enter the digital era. The choice is ours.

Combining flexibility and protection

At Uber, we have a clear vision for the future of work — and we believe that flexibility and protection can go hand in hand. And we want to do our part. In our recent White Paper “A Better Deal for European Platform Workers”, we describe several ways to make sure platform work comes with adequate protections, and is satisfying and economically sustainable. We also suggest ways on how to improve legal certainty and a level playing field for platforms and their users, as well as how to ensure decent earning opportunities for all, and improved social dialogue.

But while we understand that there is no “one size fits all” approach when tackling a complex area such as platform work, we see Europe’s upcoming rules as a unique opportunity to improve platform work’s conditions and create legal certainty online and offline. For the freelance designers, and for the delivery courier. In Europe’s North, and in Europe’s South. For the student who supplements his income, and for the musician who can practice her art. For flexibility, and for protection.

That’s why we want to exchange with cities we serve, and countries we operate in. Most of all, we want to exchange with those who use our services. Because their voices are the ones that matter most, and any reasonable regulation should reflect their wants and needs.