The European Commission aims to improve the employment conditions of workers in the gig economy through new regulations. A directive adopted in mid-October stipulates that individuals employed through platforms cannot be unreasonably treated as self-employed and introduces the presumption of an employment relationship, particularly if there are grounds for this. Poland has two years to implement the regulations. – “The whole issue of the dispute is whether to extend this presumption of employment to everyone employed in our country”, comments Marcin Stanecki, Chief Labour Inspector.
“The directive on platform work primarily aims to improve the situation of people who work through apps, so-called platform workers. The directive probably raises controversies, but I think they are not directly related to the directive itself, but whether it will limit its scope only to platform workers or will it also include all workers, everyone providing work under civil law contracts, in our country”, explains Marcin Stanecki to Newseria Biznes agency.
Platform work is a form of employment in which organizations or individuals use web platforms to reach others to solve specific problems or perform specific services in return for payment. This is how, for example, couriers from popular delivery services or tutors from language learning apps work.
The digital platform industry is developing rapidly. It especially gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The European Commission reports that between 2016 and 2020, revenues from this sector almost quintupled – from an estimated 3 billion euros to approximately 14 billion euros. The delivery sector and the taxi services sector generate the most revenue. Currently, around 500 platforms operate in the Union, employing 28 million people in 2022 and possibly even 43 million by 2025.
Most of those people have a formal status of being self-employed, although in reality, they often work in equivalent conditions to permanent employees. The new directive on platform work aims to improve their working conditions, primarily by introducing a presumption of an employment relationship.
“At present, the Labour Code contains a regulation which states that concluding a civil contract in conditions typical of an employment relationship is an evasion of law. However, it does not shift the burden of proof onto the employer. The directive introduces a new obligation, that the employer will have to prove that they do not employ under conditions typical of an employment relationship”, Stanecki points out.
People working for platforms lack health insurance and any social securities. The European directive aims to regulate the status of such people. The new law introduces a presumption of an employment relationship, especially if there is evidence that workers receive job orders or are subject to the same control as permanent employees. It will be up to the platform to prove that no such employment relationship exists.
“The so-called platform workers work on the basis of civil contracts. Often these are not contracts for specific work or service contracts, but from our inspection experience, these are, for example, civil law contracts for renting a bicycle or a rucksack. The people working under these contracts often earn less than the minimum hourly wage and are employed for 10 PLN (Polish Zloty), one of the couriers even worked for 7 PLN. These wages are much below what the law on minimum wage guarantees”, says Stanecki.
As he emphasizes, employers are also persuaded by other arguments, not only financial ones.
“Based on civil contracts, you can work six to seven days a week, 12, 14, even 16 hours, and we often find such cases. There are no protective standards regarding working hours – Stanecki explains – If you want to terminate an employment contract, you have to tell the worker why you are parting with them. If I have someone on a mandate contract, I can terminate it at any time without giving a reason. I do not have to worry about an appeal to the labour court, I avoid all these formalities. That’s why these contracts are so often used in practice.”
Currently, the Polish Labour Inspectorate has no tools to combat abuses in contracting civil contracts. It can only file a lawsuit in court, but rarely uses this option. PIP data shows that last year it filed 52 lawsuits. For the court, however, the will of the parties is important – if it was to conclude a civil law contract, the PIP loses.
“The whole point of the dispute is whether to extend this presumption of employment to everyone employed in our country, or to limit it only to workers employed through online applications”, says the Chief Labour Inspector.
As he emphasizes, Poland is the only EU country where contributions are not made for all mandate contracts or contracts for specific work.
“In my opinion – as a citizen, not the Chief Labour Inspector – the presumption should be extended and the legislator should not focus only on implementing the platform directive strictly but should expand the presumption of employment to all workers. The reason is, those who work through platforms will be in a much more favourable situation than a person working in a shop, retail or gastronomy. We most often find irregularities regarding the conclusion of civil law contracts instead of employment contracts in these two sectors. This is about 22% of the irregularities detected in retail and 22% in gastronomy”, the expert believes.
GUS data shows that at the end of March 2024, nearly 2.3 million people in Poland were working under mandate contracts and related contracts, e.g., agency contracts, service contracts, activating contracts, appointments, and contracts with members of supervisory boards. ZUS (Social Insurance Institution) informs that in 2023, it received 1.2 million RUD forms (50.5 thousand more than in 2022), on which 1.6 million contract works were reported. According to a Useme survey, there are currently 330 thousand freelancers in Poland which for almost 60% of them, freelancing is an additional source of income.
