The ‘Uberisation’ of the economy is growing so rapidly that even schools aren’t safe unless EU member states fully enforce the Platform Work Directive, a new trade union report warns today.
The study, 'Strategic Foresight: Which workers in Europe are vulnerable to Uberisation?’, identifies education as one of six industries which show ‘high vulnerability’ to Uberisation.
It highlights how teachers in the US are already being employed on the same terms as those that have been forced on delivery riders or taxi drivers, and warns there is little impediment to the business model reaching Europe soon without action.
Home care, mental health care, music, agency work and data annotation are the other sectors most exposed to the business model, which currently denies around 12 million workers their most basic rights, such as minimum rates of pay or the right to paid sick leave.
However, the report insists Uberisation is not inevitable and sets out the importance of a strong transposition of the Platform Work Directive, which will give workers a legal presumption of employment and rights over algorithmic management – if properly implemented by member states.
The ETUC is publishing the study to mark the one year countdown to the deadline for implementation and to encourage member states to end the scandal of bogus self-employment, which is short-changing workers and leaving the public to pick up the social security bill for huge corporations.
The six industries identified in the study as being highly vulnerable to Uberisation are:
- Education: Trends towards in-person to online classes has increased the number of digital labour platform models in this industry, putting at risk professional standards and working conditions.
- Home care: A rapidly growing industry subject to widespread privatisation and outsourcing, digital labour platform models are proliferating with evidence of significant health and safety and job security risks for a largely female workforce.
- Mental health care: Therapy platforms have spread as many people struggle to access mental health support through the public sector, with signs of de-skilling and burnout for mental health professionals on these platforms.
- Music: Streaming platforms have already ‘platformised’ the music industry but now there are signs that Uberised models are emerging in the live music scene, where most musicians make the majority of their income.
- Agency work: Traditional temporary employment agencies are being usurped by Uber-style models connecting temporary workers directly to business clients. Agency work is a notoriously exploitative industry and there are signs that this is continuing on agency work platforms, with evidence of fair-tipping practices being undermined and workers forced to pay to access their wages quickly.
- Data annotation: The data annotation (also known as ‘click work’) workforce are the humans behind artificial intelligence, who test, train and fix AI systems. With the rapid emergence of generative AI, the data annotation workforce has grown rapidly and increasingly relies on high-skilled data annotators in the wide range of sectors in which generative AI products are being developed.
Commenting on the report’s findings, ETUC Confederal Secretary Tea Jarc said:
“The final deadline to put the platform work directive into action is now just a year away and this report shows what is at stake for millions of working people.
“If national governments properly implement the platform work directive, massive corporations will no longer be able to get away with forcing workers into bogus self-employment.
“Without action, the ‘Uberisation’ of work will expand to ever more sectors of the economy, robbing millions more workers of their most basic rights, undercutting the majority of employers, leaving the public to pick up the bill for pensions, and exacerbating labour shortages caused by low quality jobs.
“The ‘Uberisation’ of the economy is a very real risk but far from a foregone conclusion. This is the moment to stop a handful of billionaire techbros re-writing the democratically decided laws of European countries so that they can put another zero on the end of their bank accounts.”
Jelmer Evers, Director of the European Trade Union Committee for Eduction, said:
“Education is not a commodity and teaching is a profession. The student-teacher relationship is at the heart of education. This is not something to be traded on an app. If we allow the Uberisation model to enter our schools, we risk dismantling public education, professional standards and turning teaching into precarious gig work. This is an important study by ETUC and the Platform Work Directive is a crucial safeguard—governments must act now to protect educators and ensure quality education for all.”
