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Digital platform work takes many forms, mirroring the diversity found across the sectors it encompasses. This article provides an overview of who are the digital platform workers and what type of jobs and tasks they carry out. The objective is to better understand this digitally-enabled way of working and its workers to successfully implement occupational safety and health (OSH) principles and effectively place humans at the centre of workplace digitalisation, goal of EU-OSHA’s 2023-25 Healthy Workplaces Campaign.

Getting to know platform workers
Digital platform work employs 11.5 million people in the European Union (EU), around 6% of the total workforce. Most workers are young, with more than a third falling within the 16-34 age group, and men, although women are increasingly more present. The skill levels required to take part in this form of work can be lower or higher, although they do not reveal anything about the workers’ general skills and rather determine whether a task can be allocated to anyone active on the platform or just to a selected individual.

Groups that encounter barriers in traditional employment settings are overrepresented in digital platform work. This includes migrants, especially from outside the EU, ethnic minorities, workers with disabilities, individuals located in remote and rural areas with limited job opportunities, people with care responsibilities or other occupations and young people. The appeal of platform work for these groups lies in their low entry barriers, flexible scheduling, pace and location, as well as minimal language requirements, anonymity regarding migrant or minority status and the potential for progression to more formal employment opportunities.

A wide range of jobs and sectors
In the EU, over 500 digital labour platforms are currently active, showcasing the heterogeneity across industries, activities and business models. Here is an overview of the most common sectors:

• Information and communication technologies, finance, technical, professional and scientific services employ 19% of all EU platform workers (EU-OSHA - OSH Pulse 2022). Accountants, engineers, translators, consultants, lawyers and jurists, software developers and others represent the biggest sector. While the advantages mentioned by workers in digital platform schemes in this industry usually refer to increased flexibility in terms of both time and location, there are multiple challenges. For instance, remote programmers hired through platforms encounter greater risks compared to those in the traditional labour market, including psychosocial risks linked to digital surveillance, isolation and overwork, as they often need to ‘fight’ to maintain high ratings on the platforms to secure more tasks. Online content reviewers are also exposed to significant psychosocial risks at work due to exposure to violence, crime, abuse and illegal content without adequate support to discuss their working conditions, even less when belonging to the platform economy.
• Workers in commerce, transport and logistics; accommodation and food services; food and parcel delivery; passenger transport and rental accommodation represent 18%. Parcel delivery drivers face new OSH risks due to the emergence of digital platforms. Increased subcontracting and non-standard employment arrangements have worsened their conditions, and they now deal with a high level of platform control, algorithmic management and constant digital monitoring. Legislation, such as the Spanish riders law, has regulated the rights of food delivery drivers by recognising a dependent employment status with the platforms and advocating for algorithmic transparency. Similarly, several initiatives and regulation empowering and giving voice to platform workers have been introduced in France in recent years. The agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Council on a proposed directive to improve working conditions for platform workers is another recent instance of a regulation proposal.
• Administrative and support services are 16%. An example of workers in this sector are cleaners organised through digital platforms, that, in addition to the risks associated with the activity in regular employment models, have the added issues of algorithmic management and surveillance as well as work intensification.
• People in the health and social care sector (12%), such as home, child and elderly carers and nurses and physicians experience higher workloads and longer working hours, increased job insecurity, loss of autonomy and even deskilling when working via digital platforms. These challenges translate into physical and psychosocial issues like fatigue, stress, depression and anxiety. OSH risks in this sector impact not only workers but also the quality of care provided to patients.
• Social, cultural, personal and any other services represent 9% and include handiwork tasks such as plumbing, painting, gardening and electrical or other small repairs. While similar challenges exist to those encountered in traditional work arrangement, the management of these risks can be aggravated when working through the platform economy, which generally externalises OSH responsibilities to the workers as they are usually classified as self-employed.

Learn more:

• Read our previous article about risks and opportunities of digital platform work.
• Take a look at all content related to digital platform work, first priority area of the 2023-25 HWC, including safety and health insights for digital platform work in 13 languages and an infographic.
• #EUhealthyworkplaces continues on Facebook, X and LinkedIn.