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Cleaner placed on the platform
Photo: Michael Gottschalk / imago images / photothek
In the digital world, the boundaries between self-employed and employees are blurring.
Crowdworkers are entrepreneurs in their own right who have to bear all the risks themselves in a world of work for which there are hardly any rules up to now.
For solo self-employed there is no protection against dismissal and no minimum wage.
You are not familiar with any regulations on working hours and no social security protection.
It is uncertain how large the number of people in Germany actually work in the platform economy.
The data situation is thin and the number of scientific studies is clear.
Estimates range from 500,000 to 1.6 million.
In 2019, the Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences recorded in a “crowdworking monitor” based on a survey of currently almost 500,000 Internet users that up to four percent of Germans over the age of 18 work for such platforms.
Almost ten percent of those surveyed were "crowdworking-savvy".
For more than 25 percent of crowdworkers, working on the platforms is the main income.
For a good 50 percent, it makes up at least half of the monthly income.
The range between the various activities and forms of employment on the digital platforms is huge:
Crowdworkers
work online in the cloud and usually perform highly specialized and well-paid activities, such as software development or e-learning.
Clickworker
are also active directly on the platforms, but with small orders mostly in the cent range, each of which only requires a few clicks.
Gigworker
on the other hand, provide their services in the real world, but receive their orders via platforms such as Helpling or Free Now: restaurants and food suppliers, cleaning staff, craftsmen or taxi drivers.
The range of earnings and working conditions is similarly large.
The Green parliamentary group is now calling for minimum standards for workers on platforms: "Many of the self-employed gig and clickworkers complain about their lack of social security," says labor market policy spokeswoman Beate Müller-Gemmeke.
It therefore needs guard rails, "not for IT specialists, but for those who work precariously."
The parliamentary group decided on a corresponding motion this Tuesday and wants to introduce it to the Bundestag.
For example, the Greens are demanding a statutory
minimum fee
analogous to the minimum wage, if it is to apply to time-based services by solo self-employed people close to the limit of dependent employment.
In a further step, European antitrust law is to be adapted so that, in future,
industry-specific minimum fees
and conditions can
be set based on the model of collective agreements
.
The
unemployment
should - on a voluntary basis - are open to all self-employed and at least pay off short-time working in emergency situations such as the current pandemic in addition to the right to unemployment benefits.
The
pension
, however, will be compulsory for self-employed, unless they are secured otherwise - but with flexible arrangements for the contributions and the possible involvement of the client in mind.
A
reversal of the burden of proof
should also
apply
to the question of whether those employed on these platforms are really self-employed or at least employees - i.e. bogus self-employed: It is not the individual who should have to prove whether an employment relationship actually exists or not, but the platform operator.
In addition, the criteria for bogus self-employment previously formulated only in general terms in the German Civil Code are to be replaced by a catalog of specific and differentiated criteria.
The Greens see a particular problem in the extremely unequal balance of power: On the one hand, the platform operators who award or mediate orders according to their own conditions - on the other hand, the individual self-employed, depending on these orders.
"It is particularly important to me that platform employees can organize themselves and are encouraged to set up interest groups," says Müller-Gemmeke.
Specifically,
trade unions
are to be given
digital access
to workers on platforms.
Among other things, the
Works Constitution Act is to be
reformed and expanded to include platform workers.
In addition, there should also be
minimum standards
for the general
terms and conditions
.
For example, some unfair practices by platform operators could be restricted - for example that they do not accept services provided at their own discretion and therefore do not have to pay or can place orders in a non-transparent manner.
For self-employed people on the border to dependent work - for example cleaners or food deliverers - there should also be minimum standards for
occupational safety
.
These could include notice periods, sick pay, maternity leave, accident insurance or vacation entitlements.
An independent
supervisory authority
is to
review
the terms and conditions, data protection regulations and occupational health and safety.
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