Industrial Relations and Social Dialogue in the Age of Collaborative Economy IRSDACE: Ntional Report Belgium. CEPS Special Report

Digitalisation has given rise to new forms of work and work organisation, of which work in the platform economy is a much discussed case as it presents opportunities and challenges to governments, social partners, workers and other actors. This report examines the platform economy in Belgium, focusing on recent developments in policy-making and industrial relations and social dialogue. The Belgian case is particularly interesting because of the strong involvement of policy-makers and social partners in the debate, the prevalence of attempts towards organisation and representation of platform workers by workers as well as social partners, the role played by new types of intermediaries and the fact that Belgium is one of the few EU member states with dedicated legislation for the platform economy. Although Belgium is a frontrunner in these areas, the platform economy has not developed as much as in other member states. The present report delves further into these issues, exploring the proliferation of the platform economy, the responses formulated by government and social partners, and the future ahead. This research has been carried out in the framework of a project on Industrial Relations and Social Dialogue in the Age of Collaborative Economy (IRSDACE), which is funded by the European Commission (VP/2016/004)

Stabilising the European Economic and Monetary Union: What to expect from a common unemployment benefits scheme? CEPS Research Report No 2017/02, February 2017

In the aftermath of the Great Recession, there has been a widespread call for reform of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), as it became clear that its current institutional architecture lacks an automatic stabilisation mechanism to prevent economic shocks and to mitigate their impact. A European unemployment benefits scheme (EUBS) has long been discussed as one potential stabilisation mechanism. In this report, we explore this option in more depth. We start from 18 EUBS variants, of two types – equivalent and genuine – for which we assess the legal and operational feasibility of introducing these schemes and the added value that they would bring. Our analysis focuses on added value in terms of macroeconomic stabilisation as well as the potential contribution to labour mobility and Europe’s social dimension. The feasibility assessment covers legal and operational options and constraints at the national and EU levels. The report further devotes attention to important challenges such as institutional moral hazard, permanent transfers and EUBS implementation

What is happening with platform workers’ rights? Lessons from Belgium. CEPS Commentary, 31 October 2017

The partnership between delivery platform Deliveroo and workers’ cooperative SMart has been terminated, sparking new debate over workers’ rights in the platform economy

Five things we need to know about the on-demand economy. CEPS Essay No. 21/8 January 2016

The last few years have witnessed the exponential growth of platforms like Uber and Airbnb and the creation of countless other less well-known examples. The expansion of the on-demand economy puts huge pressure on regulators to adapt it to the existing frameworks for labour and taxation. The rapid growth of the sector also divides experts: it is seen by many as threat for working conditions, and by others as an incredible opportunity. The purpose of this essay is to take a balanced perspective on what we know about the on-demand economy and what needs further investigation. More research is needed on the individual cases before one can draw conclusions on how this new sector works. The political economy of the sector is made even more interesting by the fact that the technology is developing faster than the regulation. Yet, our plea to policy-makers is to refrain from legislating too early and to take the time to understand how the supply and the demand of these services behave and their equilibrium

Employment and Working Conditions of Selected Types of Platform Work

Platform work is a form of employment that uses an online platform to match the supply of and demand for paid labour. In Europe, platform work is still small in scale but is rapidly developing. The types of work offered through platforms are ever-increasing, as are the challenges for existing regulatory frameworks. This report explores the working and employment conditions of three of the most common types of platform work in Europe. For each of these types, Eurofound assesses the physical and social environment, autonomy, employment status and access to social protection, and earnings and taxation based on interviews with platform workers. A comparative analysis of the regulatory frameworks applying to platform work in 18 EU Member States accompanies this review. This looks into workers’ employment status, the formal relationships between clients, workers and platforms, and the organisation and representation of workers and platforms

Government Responses to the Platform Economy: Where do we stand? CEPS Policy Insight No 2017-30/July 2017

The introduction of the platform economy in Europe has sparked debate on the challenges it raises for workers, companies, social partners, governments and other stakeholders, and how these challenges can be addressed. This paper assesses government responses to the platform economy in seven EU countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and Spain. It shows that, owing to the lack of a specific framework governing the platform economy, countries generally attempt to apply existing legislation, regulations and policies to the new challenges that the platform economy brings. This holds for the status of workers, working conditions, and industrial relations and social dialogue. Nevertheless, this strategy is not necessarily successful. The status of platform workers, for example, remains unclear in most member states. Some member states consider all platform workers to be self-employed, while in other member states, their status is much more dependent on the specific circumstances. There seems to be little debate on the idea of introducing a new status in the countries studied. On working conditions, the results confirm that most countries have applied the existing framework to platform work. In many of the member states, this has turned out to be problematic in several dimensions (e.g. taxation and social protection). In the area of industrial relations and social dialogue, there is much less evidence of specific actions or initiatives

The Platform Economy and Industrial Relations. Applying the old framework to the new reality. CEPS Research Report No. 2017/12, August 2017

This paper investigates the relationship between the platform economy, industrial relations and social dialogue, as portrayed in the literature. It provides strong evidence that workers in the platform economy are organising into new employee associations (unions) and are also being brought into existing employees associations. None of the evidence surveyed indicates that platforms are organising into employer associations or being incorporated into existing employer associations. Anecdotal evidence suggests that actors in the platform economy are engaging in tripartite dialogue. The authors conclude that i) no overarching framework exists for governing or facilitating social dialogue between the parties involved in the platform economy, and ii) even if the existing framework is applied to parties in the platform economy, it offers a poor fit due to differences between platform workers and employees, and platforms and employers

Unemployment Insurance in America: A model for Europe? CEPS Policy Insights No 2017/23, June 2017

After the crisis, the longstanding debate on a European unemployment benefits scheme (EUBS) was revived as part of a much larger debate on the need for a supranational automatic stabilisation function for Europe. The American unemployment insurance (UI) system, given its two-tier structure, has often been regarded as a model for a potential EUBS. Previous research has examined the lessons to be learned from the US UI. This paper builds on this literature but goes one step further as it carefully assesses whether the lessons from the US system could actually be implemented in a European context. Indeed, while there are important parallels between the US and the EU in some areas, significant differences in others may complicate implementation or even render it impossible. In this paper, the aim, therefore, is to identify the aspects of the US system to draw inspiration from – in light of the EU’s institutional and political realities – and explain how they inform a potential EUBS. This exercise concentrates on the design and implementation of a potential EUBS. The paper highlights that a two-tier system helps to better attain the goals of unemployment insurance, as demonstrated by the American experience. It also shows the advantages of being pragmatic and taking an incentives-based approach. Other issues, such as solidarity and redistribution, seem more difficulty to tackle in Europe than in the American context and would require further examination. Finally, discretionary measures should be considered with caution

Blame it on my youth! Policy recommendations for re-evaluating and reducing youth unemployment. CEPS Research Report No. 2018/01, January 2018

Youth unemployment has ranked high on the agenda of European policymakers since the onset of the crisis. Ten years later, youth unemployment remains stubbornly high in a number of member states. This paper offers policy recommendations for rethinking and reducing youth unemployment in Europe. To this end, it filters and summarises the results of the STYLE research project on youth unemployment in Europe, and supplements these with additional literature. The paper explores three sets of questions: i) How to define and measure youth employment? ii) What are its causes and effects? and iii) What can be done about the phenomenon? The findings indicate that youth unemployment is poorly understood and the most common measurements are insufficient. Its causes are diverse, arising from both the inherent disadvantages suffered by younger people in the labour market as well as from structural changes occurring in the labour market. The effects of youth unemployment are detrimental and significant at both the societal and individual level. Based on our analysis, we put forward 13 broad policy recommendations to address youth unemployment in Europe