Counter-app (3/4): Platform Work is dangerous

A discussion about the latest scholarly thinking on the 'just transition' agenda and the ongoing challenges of effective policy implementation.   How does just transition interrelate with ideas about ‘eco-social’ transformation? What is the best way to define, and enact, the ‘justice’ part of the concept?  And how do we get the policy design right, particularly in an often unsympathetic political environment? The guests on this episode of 'Voices on the world of work' are Paolo Graziano, Professor of Political Science at the University of Padua and Research Associate at the European Social Observatory, and Giorgos Galanis, Reader in Applied Economics at Queen Mary University of London and Visiting Senior Fellow at The London School of Economics. Further reading EU funds for the socio-ecological transition | etui (Paolo Graziano, Sebastiano Sabato, Slavina Spasova, Filippo Grisolia and Federica Fleischmann) Towards a just transition | etui (Giorgos Galanis and Lilit Popoyan) Who supports a (just) green transition? | etui Workers as climate actors: what can unions do about climate change? | etui ETUI topic page: Just transition, industrial policy and climate change | etui 

A crisis has been building in Europe's automotive industry over the past few years, as it has struggled to adapt to the challenges of Chinese competition and the shift to electromobility.  For a sector that employs millions of workers, this is a serious issue - for people's jobs, for Europe's industrial core, and for the green transition as a whole.  So let's unpack this complicated relationship between the woes of the car industry and the push for electrification in Europe. How much is the former due to the latter, and why has electrification not happened faster? More fundamentally, what role should EU policy be playing in this delicate balancing act between climate, social and industrial objectives?  With me today to do this unpacking are Benjamin Denis, Head of Industrial Policy Coordination at IndustriAll Europe, which is the trade union federation of industrial workers, and Tommaso Pardi, Senior Researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, Director of GERPISA, the research network on the automotive industry, and contributor to the ETUI's recently published book 'Is ‘electromobility made in Europe’ still possible?' Further reading  ⁠Is ‘electromobility made in Europe’ still possible? | etui⁠ ⁠Is Europe on track towards net zero mobility? | etui⁠  ⁠On the way to electromobility - a green(er) but more unequal future? | etui⁠  ⁠Heavier, faster and less affordable cars | etui⁠  ⁠Enough is Enough⁠ (IndustriAll Europe campaign on the future of industry and industrial jobs in Europe) 

Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, a reality that all kinds of workplaces need to adapt to. Recent survey evidence tells us that around one in five workers in the EU have reported exposure to extreme heat at work, rising to one in three workers in some southern countries. So this begs the question: does the law do enough to ensure adequate worker protection? And what are the costs of inaction? This episode's guest is Marouane Laabbas-el-Guennouni (ETUI), one of the authors of a new report on the impact of climate change on workers’ health, which looks at how EU legislation can be improved to address the challenge of rising temperatures. Joining us is Ivan Ivanov, political secretary at the European Federation of Food, Agriculture, and Tourism Trade Unions (EFFAT), which represents some of the most vulnerable types of labour when it comes to extreme heat exposure. Further readingClimate change and workers’ health | etuiWorkers and the climate challenge | etuiHeatwaves as an occupational hazard | etui[Mid-episode advert for Unsung: Cleaners, a new podcast from UNI Europa.]

EU Inc, otherwise known as the 28th regime, has made a big splash in Brussels recently. In March of this year, the European Commission proposed what it terms a ‘single set of corporate rules across the EU’ that companies – with a particular focus on startups – could opt into rather than having to navigate the myriad of national legal regimes on the continent. It is a flagship policy of the Commission's agenda for a more competitive European economy.  The Commission has claimed that the proposed Regulation includes strong safeguards against abuse, but the labour movement has strongly criticised some of the proposal's elements that present a risk to hard-won labour rights in individual Member States and the threat it poses to worker representation in corporate governance. In this discussion, Marcus Meyer-Erdmann and Sara Lafuente, senior researchers at the ETUI specialising in European industrial relations and worker participation, explain what's really at stake here.  To dive deeper into the ETUI's ongoing analysis of the 28th regime project, take a look at these two recent policy briefs:   Innovation or evasion? How the 28th Regime ‘EU Inc.’ undermines collective rights and shifts corporate risk on to workers | etui  How a 28th company law regime jeopardises workers’ rights | etui 

The Counter-app series explores how app-based workers can counter the power of their algorithmic bosses. Each episode is based on cutting-edge research by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) on platform work and how workers are resisting digitised exploitation.In the final episode of this mini-series, journalist and researcher Ben Wray takes a deep-dive into the EU's recent Platform Work Directive, which Member States must transpose into their national legal regimes by December 2026.The episode is based on 'The Platform Work Directive: Trade union guide to transposition', the fourth and final report of the ETUC's Fair Platforms project, a series of manuals on work in the platform economy. Interested in hearing other 'voices on the world of work'? Take a look back at previous seasons of etui.podcast.AcknowledgementsThanks to Martin Willems, Daniel Cruz and Silvia Rainone for their contributions to this episode. Credits GeenStijl (2023). 'Uber Files: "Ruthless greed and state failure", testifies whistleblower Mark MacGann'. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLjBzIgqVvk Timestamps00:00 to 01:32: Introduction 1:33 to 04:52: Part 1 - The legal presumption of employment 04:53 to 08:46: Part 2 - Procedural laws 08:47 to 12:19: Part 3 - Intermediaries 12:20 to 14:47: Part 4 - Algorithmic management 14:48 to 20:24: Part 5 - Enforcement 20:25 to 20:54: Outro

link: https://www.etuc.org/sites/default/files/publication/file/2026-02/ETUC%20Manual%20OSH.pdfTime stamps:00:00 to 00:48: Introduction00:49 to 08:10: Part 1: Sebastian Galassi’s story08:11 to 14:01: Part 2: Psycho-social hazards14:02 to 18:37: Part 3: How can we ensure health & safety in platform work?18:38 to 19:08: Outro

STRUCTUREIntroduction: 00:00 to 00:5400:55 to 2:32: Part 1: What is Uberisation?02:33 to 07:25: Part 2: What makes an industry vulnerable to Uberisation?07:26 to 09:58: Part 3: 5 industries vulnerable to Uberisation - 1) Education09:59 to 11:58: 2) Mental health care11:59 to 14:31: 3) Music14:32 to 17:10: 4) Agency work17:11 to 21:52: 5) Data annotation21:53 to 23:25: Part 4: De-Uberisation23:26 to 23:56: OutroCREDITSBackground music: ‘Embrace’, by Evgeny Bardyuzha (downloaded with a creative commons licence from pixabay.com).Interviews with Samantha Howe, Linas Mazgeika, Elmar Smid and Jonas Valente were conducted in person at the ETUC ‘Platforum’ in Nicosia, Cyprus, September 25-26. Thanks to all.HighLine Executives (2025). ‘THE Uber for Videography and Photography | Kawser Khan | HTX | S2 E7’. Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipFPXFIKoucFinweek Magazine (2016). ‘finweek Money Matters: The "Uber" for handymen’. Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTYgUJCPY_EDownieLive (2023). ‘I tried the "UBER" for PRIVATE JETS!’ Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq8CA2-y4FQThe Rideshare Guy (2022). ‘People Are Doing LAUNDRY For Others As A SIDE HUSTLE! - "The Uber for Laundry”’. Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO2NG8NxGwADRONE ON Podcast (2025). ‘Spexi: Why the Uber for Drone Data thinks the World Map Needs an Upgrade | DRONE ON’. Youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSYnMaEsL2cEverything Electric TECH (2024). ‘This Flatpack Electric Van Is The Uber For Potatoes! |Fully Charged Show Podcast with OX Delivers’. Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMIcmYOBd-EHouse of New Mobility (2016). ’CES16 - URGENT.LY: We are the Uber for tow trucks’. Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lJjB3ormB4Kate Ferguson (2024). ‘How online therapy became big business’. DW News.https://www.dw.com/en/online-therapy-has-become-a-billion-dollar-business/video-70805828BetterHelp (2025). ‘Get Matched With a Therapist That Fits Your Needs, Style, and Goals’. Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJE55BNmo2ETEDx Talks (2019). ‘Building a global brand, locally | Rafe Offer | TEDxLSE’. Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WDGVPNrgQI

The Counter-app series explores how app-based workers can counter the power of their algorithmic bosses. Each episode is based on cutting-edge research by the European Trade Union Confederation on platform work and how workers are resisting digitised exploitation. In this first episode, Ben Wray looks at what algorithmic management is, how it affects workers and what data tools and tactics workers can use to 'negotiate the algorithm'. The episode is based on a trade union manual to Negotiating the Algorithm published by the ETUC in September, which you can download here: https://www.etuc.org/en/publication/fair-platforms-project-thematic-reports Structure00:00 - 00:58: Introduction 00:59 - 03:33: Part 1: What is algorithmic management? 03:34 - 08:35: Part 2: What problems do workers face from algorithmic management? 08:36 - 12:07: Part 3: How do workers ‘negotiate the algorithm’? 12:08 - 19:50: Part 4: What are workers’ data tools? 19:51 - 22:03: Part 5: How do unions build their data capacities? 22:04 - 23:55: Conclusion  Credits Background music: ‘Embrace’, by Evgeny Bardyuzha (downloaded with a creative commons licence from pixabay.com) Interviews were conducted in-person with Fiachra Ó Luain, Lucie Morpurgo and Daniel Cruz in Nicosia, Cyprus, September 2025. Thanks to all. Ben Wray (2022). ’Data Power in the gig economy: Interview with data expert Jessica Pidoux’. The Gig Economy Project.https://open.spotify.com/episode/0XwcoHYn2FkcmHPU2FQbrU Ben Wray (2022). ‘Algorithms, Work and the European Directive: Interview with James Farrar and Sergi Cutillas’. The Gig Economy Project.https://open.spotify.com/episode/3UEBpCVRN3bRjw14Xu1YGX Sarah Beckmann (2023), ‘The Shipt Calculator: Crowdsourcing Gig Worker Pay Data to Audit Algorithmic Management’. MIT Media.https://www.media.mit.edu/videos/hd-shipt-app-tracker-2023-02-22/ Eric Gardner (2024). 'NEW: We put 7 Uber & Lyft drivers in one room and had them open their apps.’ More Perfect Union.https://x.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1833187863498002850 The Modern Mann (2025). ‘Interview: Revenge Of Gig Worker Armin Samii’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjgKL7z4Ovw Bethany Staunton, Silvia Rainone (2025). ‘What makes the Platform Work Directive a milestone? (etui.podcast)’. ETUI.https://www.etui.org/news/what-makes-platform-work-directive-milestone-etuipodcast

To close this season, etui.podcast went a little further afield than usual to take a look at the United States labour relations landscape with Kayla Blado, who recently served as Director of Congressional and Public Affairs at the US National Labor Relations Board.  In our chat she offered some insights from her experience at the federal agency, into the recent, particularly volatile chapter in US politics, and into the country’s industrial relations system more broadly. Interested in hearing some more of our interviews? Take a look back at this and previous seasons of etui.podcast here. 

The European Commission recently launched an evaluation of the 2014 directives which shape the rules around public procurement, the process by which public contracts are put out to tender. Trade unions have called for a revision that ensures the inclusion of criteria based on quality, rather than only price. In particular, they have argued that these rules can be used as a tool to improve labour conditions and promote collective bargaining, rather than allowing some employers to be undercut by those who show less respect for workers’ rights and trade union engagement.  Discussion with Niklas Bruun, professor of law at the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, about his recent paper for the ETUI on how EU public procurement law can be improved. Stan De Spiegelaere, Director of Policy and Research at UNI Europa, the trade union federation of service workers, lends some further insight into how the current problems play out on the ground.  Further readingPromoting collective bargaining in public procurement | etuiCollective bargaining and public procurement in Germany | etuiProcuring Decent Work - UNI Europa