ETUC takes initiative on self-employed workers' rights

Following a long-running campaign, the ETUC has welcomed the adoption of new guidelines by the European Commission which make clear EU competition law does not stand in the way of solo self-employed workers engaging in collective bargaining. Self-employed workers make up around a tenth of the European workforce but research commissioned by the ETUC found that some form of (limited) access to collective bargaining for self-employed workers existed in only 10 EU countries. The ETUC says that removing this legal uncertainty will benefit many of the more than 24 million self-employed and freelance

The Fagforbundet trade union has secured another legal victory against a care company cutting employment costs by misclassifying workers as self-employed. Three of the union's members in the private care company Recoveryakademiet have been awarded NOK 7 million (€600,000) in back pay (salary, overtime and holiday pay). The three, classified as “consultants” by the company, worked for several weeks without a legal working hours scheme being established, and were therefore paid much less than they were entitled to. They were also denied their right to holiday pay and sick pay. This follows a

The ETUC has welcomed the vote in the European Parliament’s Employment Committee to support legislation on workers in digital labour platforms. The ETUC says that delivery riders, cab drivers, content creators, programmers, click-workers, engineers and carers are among 28 million workers who would benefit from the provisions in the Employment Committee’s report. If passed as a directive it would mean an end to the system of false self-employment used by platform companies to cut costs at the detriment of workers’ pay and conditions, giving workers the right to a proper employment contract. It