Collective Bargaining in Times of Platform Work

Collective bargaining can help workers and companies adapt to the opportunities and challenges of a changing world of work. Even if to some people collective bargaining may sound like a relic of the past, it is an instrument to reach flexible and consensual solutions to regulate the use of new technologies and shape new rights. However, low levels of organization among workers, in particular non-standard workers, pose a serious challenge to collective bargaining. This partly reflects legal obstacles for workers classified as self-employed, for whom the right to bargain collectively may be seen as infringing competition law. To bypass these obstacles and extend bargaining rights to some non-standard workers, some OECD countries have either adapted the labor law or tailored competition regulation.

Andrea Bassanini, Stijn Broecke, Sandrine Cazes, Andrea Garnero, Chloe Touzet¹

I. INTRODUCTION

Workers for platforms such as ride-hailing or food delivery apps are increasingly demanding better working conditions and stronger regulation of the sector in both the United States and the European Union. Strikes, i.e. workers logging off from the app, have recently taken place in the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Australia, and Hong Kong. Despite remaining relatively limited in scope, platform work has become one of the most visible and controversial symbols of the “new world of work.”

While platforms a