Counter-app (4/4): The Platform Work Directive

etui.podcast

ETUI

Non-profit, Business

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🗓️ 2 April 2026

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Counter-app series explores how app-based workers can counter the power of their algorithmic bosses. Each episode is based on cutting-edge research by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) on platform work and how workers are resisting digitised exploitation.

In the final episode of this mini-series, journalist and researcher Ben Wray takes a deep-dive into the EU's recent Platform Work Directive, which Member States must transpose into their national legal regimes by December 2026.

The episode is based on 'The Platform Work Directive: Trade union guide to transposition', the fourth and final report of the ETUC's Fair Platforms project, a series of manuals on work in the platform economy.

Interested in hearing other 'voices on the world of work'? Take a look back at previous seasons of etui.podcast.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Martin Willems, Daniel Cruz and Silvia Rainone for their contributions to this episode.

Credits

GeenStijl (2023). 'Uber Files: "Ruthless greed and state failure", testifies whistleblower Mark MacGann'. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLjBzIgqVvk

Timestamps

00:00 to 01:32: Introduction

1:33 to 04:52: Part 1 - The legal presumption of employment

04:53 to 08:46: Part 2 - Procedural laws

08:47 to 12:19: Part 3 - Intermediaries

12:20 to 14:47: Part 4 - Algorithmic management

14:48 to 20:24: Part 5 - Enforcement 2

0:25 to 20:54: Outro

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to counter app, a series of podcasts about how app-based workers can counter the power of their algorithmic bosses. My name is Ben Ray. I'm a
0:24.2	journalist and researcher specialising in the platform economy. In this final episode of
0:30.0	Counter app, we guide you through the transposition of the EU Platform 1 Directive. The Directive requires all 27 EU Member States to establish their own Platformwork Law
0:43.3	within the terms proposed by the European Union.
0:47.3	This process is called transposition and it must be complete by the 2nd December, 26. There are different ways in which national governments can transpose the Platform Work Directive.
1:00.0	And this guide will help explain what ways are likely to be most favourable for ensuring the platform workers' rights.
1:07.0	We will explore. What is the legal presumption of employment and how should it be applied?
1:14.6	What are procedural laws and why do they matter?
1:18.6	What do we do about subcontractors?
1:21.6	What are the algorithm management rights in the directive?
1:25.6	And what sort of enforcement measures are needed to ensure compliance with the new platform or claw.
1:35.3	Part 1 The Legal Presumption of Employment
1:42.3	A legal presumption of employment can be thought of a bit like a legal presumption of innocence
1:47.9	in criminal law. You don't have to prove your own innocence. It's up to the prosecutor to prove
1:53.3	your guilt. Similarly, a platform worker is legally presumed to be an employee and it's up to the
2:00.5	platform to prove otherwise.
2:02.6	However, it is not that simple. First of all, the legal presumption in the platform
2:09.6	work directive is not automatic. It has to be triggered by presenting facts which indicate
2:15.6	direction and control over the worker. So a platform worker or
2:20.8	labour inspector have to present evidence that a worker is an employee. This evidence does not have to
2:27.4	meet a judicial threshold. As if it did, then there would be no legal presumption at all. There would
2:33.2	be legal certainty.
	...

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