Platforms provide workers with flexibility, but platform workers lack social protection and income security. The control that platforms exert over platform workers is at odds with their status as self-employed, and has prompted parliamentary hearings and lawsuits. The PlatWork-R project addresses the need for new regulations regarding platform work.
The project brings together researchers from five universities combining expertise from law, economics, management, public administration and design sciences. In collaboration with Statistics Netherlands (CBS), ministries, employee and employer organizations, the researchers develop an evidence base, policy options and implementation guidelines regarding platform work, focusing on the public values of decent work, social protection, non-discrimination, privacy and cyber security.
Civic IxD’s contribution to this project started in 2025 with Martijn Arets doing research on data portability in the gig economy. He will base his research on the experience and data from GigCV – a project in which 5 platforms shared data via an API and over 30,000 CVs were downloaded by workers. The goal is to investigate the impact of data portability in the gig economy and how it can contribute to the autonomy of platform workers.