We told drivers they could make a very decent living, thousands of euros per month, with the status of being their own boss.

Everybody wins. But that was never going to happen.

It turned out we had sold people a lie. Governments, the media, and especially drivers.

These are the words of Mark McGahn, former top lobbyist for ride-hailing platform Uber,

who turned whistleblower on the company in what became known as the Uber files,

just one of the more controversial dimensions of a debate about the rights and conditions of workers in the platform economy.

This year, after a long and embattled process, the EU adopted new rules addressing some of these issues,

particularly regarding employment status and algorithmic management.

The European Trade Union Confederation has called the Platform Work Directive a policy milestone.

I spoke to Taya Yark, Confederate Secretary at the ETUC, and Sylvia Reynoni, senior researcher

here at the European Trade Union Institute, about what exactly is in the directive, what it took to get it

passed, and what it means for millions of people working through digital platforms today.

I'm your host, Bethany Staunton, and you're listening to ETIUI Podcast, Voices on the World of Work.

Taya and Sylvia, welcome to the ETIP podcast.

Hi, thank you.

Yeah, thank you for having us.

Let's start in quite a broad way.

Taya, can you tell us what exactly is platform work?

How does it relate to what people might know more traditionally as gig work or freelancing?

Yeah, of course. So platform work refers specifically to jobs that are somehow mediated by a third person, which are digital platforms.

So these platforms, for years and years, they have been trying to portray themselves. They are just like a technological solution, an app.

But when we look at the details, we basically see that those platforms are actually employers.

...