Employment law protection of crowdworkers: Conceptual issues in the legal definition of crowdworkers

Abstract

Although the increased performance in digital platform work has been recorded only recently, the numerous problems related to employment law and social welfare protection of crowdworkers are not new. Due to diverse issues in classifying specific individuals as employees, "atypical" workers and crowdworkers have encountered many problems while attempting to obtain employment law and social welfare protection. Despite numerous differences, majority of countries have made employment law protection available to those digital platform workers who meet the requirements of the legal definition of "an employee" (or "a worker", as explicitly designated in specific legislations). In other words, the legal definition of an employee or a dependent contractor provides entrance into the area of employment law protection. However, both national and international legislators have demonstrated a certain degree of inertness in terms of avoiding to adjust the legal concept of "an employee" (or a subordinate, as defined in some legislations) to new social and economic circumstances. Considering the traditional concept of "employee", a crowdworker cannot be designated as a subordinate; consequently, digital platform workers do not fall under the scope of relevant provisions of labor, social care and tax law. On the other hand, when it comes to traditional legal categories, classifying crowdworkers as independent contractors does not diminish their need for adequate protection, primarily in terms of fair financial compensation for work, clearly limited working hours, health care and safety at work, protection in case of illness, injury at work, maternity leave or freedom of association. Therefore, national legislators should revise the justifiability and proportionality of legislation applied to economic cooperation, and consider the specificities of economic cooperation business models and tools that can be used for resolving ample issues in defining employment law protection of crowdworkers and identifying entities that may have the legal status of the employer.