Over the last years, CECOP and its members intensively advocated taking action to end exploitative practices in the platform economy, whilst developing worker-owned platform cooperatives that ensure good governance and decent work as part of their business models.  

This report of the European Parliament highlights the need to improve the working conditions of platform workers. Often misclassified as self-employed, many platform workers do not have access to social protection, are denied basic workers’ rights, and are often dependent on the untransparent digital management of investor-driven platforms.  

The report identifies these problems, and calls both for legislative efforts to end unfair business practices, whilst identifying cooperatives as a potential solution. CECOP welcomes these steps and the acknowledgment of good practices of cooperatives as bottom-up organizations in the platform economy. 

"This report is an important first step to improve working conditions in the platform economy across EU. We need legal actions that end exploitative practices of investor driven platforms, and that encourage worker-ownership of platforms".

Diana Dovgan, CECOP Secretary General 

Over the last years, CECOP and its members gained substantial experience in addressing the needs of platform workers, developing cooperative solutions to the challenges of the platform economy, and improving working conditions for platform workers. 

Based on these experiences, CECOP calls the European Commission to ensure that future Platform Work initiative supports worker-ownership of platforms and recognize the potential of cooperatives to shape a human-centred digital economy. 

You can find the whole Parliaments report here. To read more about CECOP’s work on non-standard and platform work, you can find our All for One report here, our position on the Platform Work Initiative here, and our policy paper the impact of the pandemic here.