The development of digitization, especially under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, has brought about a flourishing of work through digital platforms, making them an inevitable part of our daily lives.Particularly visible is the increase in the food and grocery delivery sector. However, this transformation is much more than a mere change – it has become a catalyst for innovation and job growth.
According to the European Council report (EU Rules on Platform Work – Consilium (europa.eu)), more than 28 million people in the EU now work through digital labor platforms, and this number is expected to increase to 43 million by 2025. With the entry into force of the new provisions of the Labor Act (Official Gazette 93/14, 127/17, 98/19, 151/22, 64/23; hereinafter: LA) on January 1, 2024, we witness changes in the way digital platforms operate.
Now, instead of working as self-employed or partners as before, workers performing delivery, transportation, and similar tasks should become employees with full labor rights. This shift represents not only a change in the legal framework but also a revolution in how we understand employment relationships and workers’ rights. These changes significantly alter the employment relationship, the role, and the position of both employees and employers.
WHAT IS WORK THROUGH DIGITAL PLATFORMS?
Imagine a future where work is not defined by traditional offices or work attire, but by virtual space and digital tools – welcome to the world of work through digital platforms. Given that we can see that we already live in that future, and it is essential to understand what this work entails. Work performed using a digital labor platform is paid work that a natural person carries out for a digital labor platform or aggregator based on a contractual relationship, using digital technology, either remotely through electronic means (website, mobile application, etc.) or directly at a specific location between the participants of a particular task. For a better understanding of what work through a digital platform means, it is necessary to explain what a digital platform and an aggregator are.
A digital labor platform is a natural or legal person that provides services that are provided on demand using digital technology, within the framework of labor organization in which individuals perform work remotely through electronic means (website, mobile application, etc.) or directly at a specific location. An example of a digital platform known to the general public would be Uber. On the other hand, an aggregator is a natural or legal person that performs the activity of representation or mediation for one or more digital labor platforms. A digital labor platform or aggregator is the employer to the worker who performs work personally through the digital platform, and the worker is a natural person who, based on an employment contract, performs tasks for the digital labor platform or aggregator.
The law regulates what an employment contract concluded between a worker and an employer (digital labor platform or aggregator) must contain. In addition to the provisions that every employment contract must contain, when work is performed through a digital platform, that contract must also contain information about the manner of assigning tasks, the manner of making decisions related to working hours and working conditions, the tools necessary to perform the work, worker expense reimbursement, the obligation to contract accident insurance, and reimbursement of expenses related to the performance of tasks to the worker. With this regulation, the law ensures that every worker participating in the digital work world has clearly defined terms and rights, creating a fairer and safer working environment in virtual reality.
In this regard, it is important to note that the Labor Act provides for a presumption that a contract concluded by a natural person with a digital platform or aggregator is an employment contract if it has the characteristics of an employment relationship. In other words, if, for example, a person concluded a contract for a specific task with a digital platform, under certain assumptions, it will be considered an employment contract using a digital platform if that contract, considering the authority of the digital labor platform or aggregator, has the characteristics of the job for which the employment relationship is based. The facts on which the existence of an employment relationship can be presumed are: personal performance of paid work, giving orders and instructions for the performance of work to a natural person, within the framework of labor organization and subordination of work, monitoring the performance of work, and monitoring the effects of a natural person, as well as prohibition of concluding contracts for one’s own or someone else’s account using the services of other platforms.
Given that by the new legal amendments, the aggregator (a person who performs the activity of representation or mediation for a digital platform) is now defined as the employer, the digital labor platform is jointly responsible for the obligations that this aggregator, as its intermediary in the market, has towards the worker employed to perform tasks for the digital labor platform. The digital labor platform can be relieved of this responsibility if it proves that the aggregator, registered according to special regulations and with which it has concluded a contract, regularly fulfills the obligation to report to pension and health insurance for workers, regularly pays the worker’s salary costs, and has no established tax debt.
Provisions of the Labor Act regulating work through digital platforms apply to digital platforms and aggregators that organize work in this way within the territory of the European Union, regardless of the location of their business domicile and the rights otherwise applied. These legal provisions ensure that the rules of the game are the same for all participants in the digital market within the European Union, regardless of their geographical affiliation or usual legal frameworks.
In order for a digital labor platform and aggregator to provide services in the market, they must be registered in the register of the competent ministry. The register is kept by the Ministry of Labor, Pension System, Family, and Social Policy. Registration in the register is carried out exclusively through e-services in the e-Citizen system, with digital labor platforms being obliged to register all their business partners (aggregators) as well. After registration, the system assigns a registration number.
Each digital labor platform will provide the following data:
-
- about the worker performing the task and the aggregator if the worker performs the task through mediation
- about the type of work and the type of contractual relationship with the employer
- about the time and location of the start and end of work.
Data is provided in real-time, usually within 24 hours of the task being performed. If a worker performs tasks that do not require an employment contract (tasks of lesser value, up to 60% of the minimum wage in three months), the platform is obliged to verify the payment limit by querying the system.
EMPLOYER OBLIGATIONS
From the perspective of labor relations, work through a digital labor platform is characterized by the relationship between three key actors: the digital labor platform, the workers performing tasks through these platforms, and the intermediary in this arrangement known as the aggregator. Although work through digital platforms brings many advantages in terms of creating new jobs, providing additional income to citizens, and greater work flexibility, on the other hand, such work can represent insecure working conditions and inadequate access to social protection and rights.
Therefore, the Labor Act prescribes certain obligations for the employer. With the new amendments to the Labor Act, it is determined that the digital labor platform or aggregator is the employer of the worker who performs work personally using the digital labor platform. Thus, the employer is obliged to inform the worker about the organization of work of the digital labor platform and the method of making decisions in the automated management system, ensure the availability and transparency of data on work performed using digital labor platforms, appoint an authorized person to supervise the safety and workload of workers performing work using digital labor platforms. Also, the employer must appoint an authorized person who, at the request of the worker, conducts a review procedure of decisions made in the automated management system and decides on them and ensure the possibility of establishing professional communication with other workers and participants in the business process and the employer and authorized persons of the employer.
Furthermore, the employer is obliged to assess the risks of work and their impact on the safety and health of workers performing work using digital platforms. Likewise, the employer must not allow work intensity that jeopardizes the physical or mental health of workers performing work using a digital labor platform. The conclusion of this legislative endeavor is not only a new page in the book of workers’ rights but also a decisive step towards building an inclusive and fairer society that ensures security and dignity for all its workers, regardless of the form of employment or type of work performed.
Considering all of the above, prior to these amendments, digital labor platforms operated with a large number of people (self-employed) but had no responsibility in terms of employer responsibility towards the worker. For example, if a natural person wanted to work as a taxi driver for a well-known digital platform (Uber or Bolt), all they had to do was either open their own business that would be a “partner” to that digital platform or work through another such partner company (aggregator).
With the new legal amendments, the legislator equates digital labor platforms and aggregators with employers, and guarantees workers all labor rights. These legal changes put workers in a significantly better position by allowing them to exercise rights such as sick leave, annual leave, and other rights that belong to workers based on an employment contract. On the other hand, these changes pose a challenge to existing “intermediaries” because they equate them with employers and thus impose obligations that “traditional” employers have towards workers.