Fairwork Belgium Ratings 2022: Towards Decent Work in the Platform Economy

The growth of the platform economy in Belgium, although less rapid than in its neighbouring countries, has triggered heated debates around workers’ legal classification and their protection. The structures for collective employment regulations and strong trade unions under the Ghent system provide some protections for workers, but in the specific context of the platform economy, they do not always translate into fairer working conditions. The lack of guaranteed minimum wage and social security coverage for self-employed workers in the platform economy results in underpaid and unpaid labour. Falling outside the scope of collective sectoral agreements, platform work is also linked to lack of job protection and lack of collective voice. This study by the Fairwork Belgium team sheds light on the working conditions of platform workers and makes practical suggestions for improving them.

This report presents the first set of Fairwork ratings for Belgium and establishes a baseline for the country’s platform economy that will be updated on a yearly basis. Five platforms in the food delivery, care, and domestic services sectors were evaluated against five Principles of Fairwork, and given a score out of ten.