On Wednesday 6th May, FUTOURWORK co-hosted a webinar exploring how platform work is transforming workers’ rights and social dialogue across Europe.
The event was coordinated together with our Horizon Europe sister projects EGRUiEN and INTEGRATE-DIALOGUE, whose research shares a focus on enhancing social dialogue and labour conditions at this time of digital transformation.
In the context of the EU Platform Work Directive, presentations from researchers and guest speakers shared insights on the current landscape for workers’ rights and what might change as this new legislation is implemented across sectors.
The event began with opening remarks by Silvia Rainone of the European Trade Union Institute, who reflected on the organisation’s Platform Work Directive policy brief that she co-authored. She shared key headlines and her perspective on why understanding the Directive matters so much right now for its implementation.
Researchers from each project then presented on areas of their work, starting with an analysis of changes in Vienna’s on-demand transport sector by EGRUiEN’s Dr. Elif Naz Kayran and Nikko Bilitza (Euro Centre). The presentation focused on the arrival in Vienna of Uber. The company clashed with existing local actors in the on-demand transport sector. EGRUiEN’s study examines how the city’s institutions responded to this disruption, namely the bargaining process and settlement which re-embedded platform services within the existing regulatory system. The settlement’s unstable nature shows how integrating platforms into economies built around traditional labour relations is a contested and ongoing process, shaped by shifting power and institutional dynamics
From FUTOURWORK, Michela Trentin (University of Westminster) shared insights on our qualitative research with hotel managers, NGOs, workers, employers’ organisations, and trade union representatives. These stakeholder interviews have reveal a dual landscape regarding digitalisation in tourism and hospitality. On one hand, stakeholders highlight how digital tools can enhance work processes when workers are meaningfully involved through co‑decision and the ability to contest technological change. On the other, organisers of hospitality workers emphasise how digitalisation often reinforces the sector’s longstanding precarity, even as hospitality appears less exposed to full-scale “Uberisation” or algorithmic management. With a focus on wellbeing and worker voice, Michela’s presentation examined the limits and possibilities of the digital promise and has explored what a more inclusive model of social dialogue could entail.
INTEGRATE-DIALOGUE’s Natalie Videbæk Munkholm (University of Southern Denmark) followed with an examination of the legal challenges and needs of non-standard workers, looking at their interests and motivations in engaging with social dialogue. She also asked what is the capacity and willingness of social partners to integrate these workers into existing dialogue structures and shared research on how EU-level legal frameworks interact with national social dialogue systems in five different countries – Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy and the UK.
Our final speaker was Foodora Norway trade union representative Philip Rein, who reflected on the experience organising bike couriers in Norway and reaching one of the first successful collective agreements with a food delivery platform company – a landmark case.
The event closed with thoughtful questions and discussion during the Q&A. Thank you to all the speakers for their contributions and to our sister Horizon Projects for collaborating with us. Sharing our research perspectives, practical experiences and understanding of social dialogue will help us shape a fairer and more inclusive future of work in Europe. We look forward to future webinars, seminars and insightful discussions.
You can watch back the webinar recording now. Be sure to follow us on LinkedIn or via the newsletter to hear about our events and research.
