Fairwork Germany 2026 Ratings Reveal Highly Uneven Working Conditions in the Platform Economy

The 2026 Fairwork Germany Ratings reveal the highly uneven working conditions in the German platform economy and the two very different realities in the sector. While one platform stands out for offering legal minimum pay, social protection, and stronger safeguards, most of the others fail to show that they provide fair pay, fair contracts, fair management, or fair representation. Convenience enjoyed by customers is still too often built on insecure and opaque conditions for workers.

The study evaluates seven of Germany’s most prominent digital labour platforms — Flink, Helpling, Bolt, Lieferando, Uber, Uber Eats, and Wolt — against Fairwork’s five principles: fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation. The findings are based on desk research, evidence from online platforms, and interviews with workers.

Read the Report Explore the Scores

The Fairwork scores were determined through rigorous desk research, interviews with workers, and platform-submitted evidence. Didem Özkiziltan-Wagenführer and Freja Hvid Kirchert conducted the interviews with the workers. Patrick Feuerstein (WZB Berlin Science Centre), Tobias Kuttler (WZB Berlin Science Centre), Didem Özkiziltan-Wagenführer (WZB Berlin Science Centre), Freja Hvid Kirchert (WZB Berlin Science Centre), Martin Krzywdzinski (WZB Berlin Science Centre) and Mark Graham (Oxford Internet Institute) authored the report. 

Learn more about the Fairwork methodology here. 

Key findings 

1. Fair Pay – Only Flink could provide evidence of its ability to ensure that its workers earn the minimum wage after costs. 
2. Fair Conditions – Flink provided sufficient evidence of their efforts to protect workers from task-related risks in their daily work and to provide a safety net.  
3. Fair Contracts – Flink and Helpling provided evidence of clear and accessible contracts or terms of service. Additionally, Flink could provide proof that the platform ensures that no unfair contract terms are imposed.
4. Fair Management – Flink was able to demonstrate that the platform has a formalised process where workers can effectively appeal disciplinary decisions, such as deactivations from the platform. Flink provided additional evidence for equity in the management process. 
5. Fair Representation – None of the platforms analysed could provide sufficient proof for the collective representation of workers.  

Looking Ahead 

The use of subcontracting in food delivery is further increasing. For workers, this often means no or inaccessible contracts, low and irregular income, poor access to communication and appeals processes to challenge decisions that affect their income, and a de facto exclusion from claiming co-determination rights. There is now a growing debate in Germany about the new rules for direct employment in food delivery, inspired by the law introduced in the meat industry in 2021.

As Germany enters the second year of transposing the EU Platform Work Directive into national law, the choices made now will shape the future of platform work for years to come.