Recital 6

Platform work can provide opportunities for accessing the labour market more easily, gaining additional income through a secondary activity or enjoying some flexibility in the organisation of working time. At the same time, most persons performing platform work have another job or another source of income and tend to be low paid. Moreover, platform work is rapidly evolving, resulting in new business models and forms of employment that are sometimes not covered by the existing systems of protection. Therefore, it is important to accompany that process with adequate safeguards for persons performing platform work, irrespective of the nature of the contractual relationship. In particular, platform work can result in the unpredictability of working hours and can blur the boundaries between an employment relationship and a self-employed activity and the responsibilities of employers and workers. The misclassification of the employment status has consequences for the persons affected, as it is likely to restrict access to existing labour and social rights. It also leads to an uneven playing field with respect to businesses that classify their workers correctly, and it has implications for Member States’ industrial relations systems, their tax base and the coverage and sustainability of their social protection systems. While such challenges are broader than platform work, they are particularly acute and pressing in the platform economy.