EU Platform Work Directive: Gig Worker Rights Check

If you get work through an app or online platform, such as delivery, ride-hailing, cleaning, tutoring or freelance marketplaces, the Platform Work Directive (Directive (EU) 2024/2831) gives you new rights. EU countries must bring it into national law by 2 December 2026. Article 4 requires your employment status to be decided on the facts of how the work is really done, not just the contract label. Article 5 creates a legal presumption that you are an employee where facts show the platform controls and directs your work, under national law and collective agreements and taking account of Court of Justice case law. Once the presumption applies, it is up to the platform to prove you are genuinely self-employed. If you are reclassified, you can gain rights to minimum wage, paid holiday, sick pay and social security.

Even if you are genuinely self-employed, the Directive’s rules on algorithmic management protect you. Platforms may not process data about your emotional or psychological state, your private conversations or your activity when you are not working (Article 7). They must tell you how automated systems monitor you and make decisions about you (Article 9), and you have the right to an explanation and a human review of significant decisions (Article 11). A decision to restrict, suspend or close your account must be taken by a human being (Article 10(5)). These rights sit alongside the GDPR, so you can also ask for your data under GDPR Article 15. Knowing what to collect now, such as screenshots of instructions, ratings and deactivation messages, makes these rights much easier to use.

Use this free check if you work through an app or online platform in the EU to see whether you could be treated as an employee and what rights you have over algorithms, ratings and account deactivation.