Casual Work Arrangements and Platform-Based Work

Platform work – in which work activities are channelled through web platforms or apps – has emerged as one of the major transformations in the world of work over the past decade. Although platform work presents many of the labour law issues related to casual work – often linked to insecure or precarious working conditions – until this book, no in-depth research has been conducted on specifically positioning platform work in the context of casual work arrangements. The author systematically evaluates how strategies aimed at regulating casual work can be extended to enhance the employment relationships and working conditions of platform workers.

The analysis proceeds through a detailed comparative legal analysis of casual work in four industrialized countries – the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy – shedding light on the divergent regulatory approaches to this work typology. Then, it moves on to EU legislators’ efforts to develop a regulatory matrix on casual work, focusing on directives such as those on fixed-term work, working time, and transparent and predictable working conditions. The author concludes with recommendations for redefining the EU legal initiative on platform work, in light of the national and EU legal instruments examined in this contribution. Issues, such as the insecure nature of work, unpaid stand-by time, and work insecurity, come to the fore.

The purpose of this book is to assist policymakers and social partners in finding viable legal solutions to tackle some of the labour protection challenges posed by platform work. At the same time, it serves as a reminder to EU policymakers, that existing legal instruments on casual work constitute an available blueprint which could be beneficial in dealing with such regulatory problems.

Issues and topics covered, in a nutshell, include the following:

• what is captured under the label of casual work arrangements;

• the shared features between casual work and platform work, with a focus on their insecure working conditions;

• the employment status insecurity;

• the insecurity of working hours;

• the uncertainty of the continuity of employment;

• the income insecurity;

• peculiar traits of platform work;

• the development of the EU regulatory matrix on casual work;

• the relevance of the directives on working time, fixed-term work, and transparent and predictable working conditions, for the protection of platform workers; and

• the improvement of the proposal for a Platform Work Directive in light of the above instruments.