Social protection of platform workers: from selectivity towards universalism

The Chapter provides a brief overview of the structural challenges posed by platform-based business models to the social security systems. It shows that the underlying issues are not entirely novel but are rather a continuation and exacerbation of the longstanding problems faced by self-employed and other non-standard workers. Section 3 draws on the most recent data provided by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to map the global scale of the social security gaps of all subcategories of platform workers. It also stresses how the Covid-19 pandemic became a magnifying lens of the social protection gaps. Section 4 then maps various judicial and regulatory developments at the national and European level in the realm of ensuring social protection of platform workers. Section 5 concludes that while the employment reclassification is indubitably one of the pathways towards social inclusion, more universal solutions are needed to provide effective social coverage to all platform workers in different sectors, as well as non-standard workers more broadly.