First published in 1948, the International Social Security Review is the principal international quarterly publication in the field of social security.
Studies on the social protection of platform workers in Spain have focused on the bike couriers (or “riders”) who deliver meals to customers’ homes and whose services are used by some of the best-known platforms on the country’s social and economic scene. Most of these workers are covered by the social security scheme for self-employed workers. However, a Supreme Court ruling issued on 25 September 2020 reclassified the relationship between Glovo and its couriers as a contract of employment. This decision has changed the outlook for platforms and prompted the Spanish Government to regulate platform work in Spain. Nonetheless, the government ruling is limited to couriers, whereas, in reality, the issue is much broader. In this article, we look at the current reality of Spain’s platform workers vis-à-vis the social security system and the latest court rulings.
In the Netherlands, the social security rights of platform workers have still not been formally defined. At present, the level of social security protection accorded to all workers is derived directly from the labour law qualification. In the continuing absence in the Netherlands of specific legislation for platform workers, specifically as regards labour law and social security law, the existing legislation is steering. This means that the platform worker is either included using the status of employee with the corresponding extensive protection package, or the status of self-employed with limited social protection. For the majority of platform workers, this second option is applied to date. Nevertheless, recent developments point to possible improvements in the social security position of platform workers in the Netherlands.
This article compares social security coverage for the self-employed and for employees on digital platforms in Switzerland. It sheds light on the particularities that have acted to slow down the evolution of Swiss social legislation to the new emerging forms of work, and summarizes the solutions provided by case law. These solutions are still being fine-tuned, but lean towards the reclassification of contracts as salaried work. Finally, despite the hesitance of the Swiss authorities to take political steps to encourage these new forms of work, which offer significant economic potential, and while also seeking to prevent the risk of precarity in work, we discuss the options available.
In a changing world of work, platform workers struggle to gain adequate protection, and effective access to the benefits provided by the social security system form a part of this. Social security benefits in Romania are particular in that access is based on a person having a professional income, regardless of the legal status of the worker (subordinate or self-employed). As a rule, all workers are covered in the event of illness and changing family circumstances as well as for pensions. In contrast, coverage for self-employed workers for unemployment benefits, workplace injury and occupational disease benefits, paid leave in the event of illness, protection against the risks related to pregnancy or to care for a sick child is voluntary. Given the diffusion of platform work, the article addresses the specific situation of platform workers in Romania, formally covered by the social security system, but who face obstacles related to eligibility criteria, administrative formalities, the risk of the automatic termination of work and intermittent work patterns.
Platform work confronts traditional social security law in two dimensions. First, it makes the distinction between dependent and independent work uncertain and unclear, as the borderlines between these blur. This is a profound challenge for social security law, because the criteria of dependent and independent work have to be precise. In the determination of work as dependent or independent, German law illustrates that a shift has taken place in determining employment status, moving from external and objective criteria to the contracting parties’ decision, which is to be executed under private law, but also respected under social security law. Second, platform work is heavily intertwined with digital communication, which has established a global environment for communication. Thereby, platform work can also facilitate international trade by making transnational work more accessible and efficient. Therefore, it seems necessary to examine the implications of platform work in international law. International law makes possible the choice of law, executed by the contracting parties. As a consequence, the protection of employees by social security law is related to the private law arrangements between the service provider and the service recipient. Gaps in social security protection of service providers are widespread. In many countries, awareness of the social protection deficits of platform workers has grown and responses to improve the social status of platform workers have come under scrutiny. Analysis reveals that there is a joint responsibility of the service provider and the service recipient to be bound to social security coverage under the same national legislation. Nevertheless, from an international law perspective, it is shown that reforms are confronted with restrictions under international law.
Are online platform “workers” in Denmark effectively and adequately protected against social and labour market risks? This article discusses this fundamental issue in the context of the Danish labour market, which is known for having high levels of job insecurity but a rather generous social security system. The article finds that the Danish statutory social security system provides a necessary cushion against risk, but also identifies gaps in protection, which brings into question the system’s effective coverage and the adequacy of benefits.
This article highlights the debate on social security regimes applicable to platform workers in Italy. As social security regimes differ according to the type of employment or self-employment relationship, Italian case law dealing with platform workers’ employment status will be illustrated. Italian legislation, case law and collective bargaining on health and safety at work will then be presented, clarifying the coverage to which platform workers are entitled in the event of accidents at work and occupational diseases, with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic impact. In turn, the two main Italian minimum income schemes and the related scholarly debate will be outlined, as well as their impact on the ability of digital labour platforms to avoid their responsibilities as regards workers’ rights, including access to adequate social protection.
This special issue of the International Social Security Review addresses the important topic of social protection for digital platform workers in Europe. The special issue highlights the risk that social protection systems may be largely undermined by a decline in social solidarity in favour of individualism, the partial or full privatization of social security, and a reduction in protection levels, all as a result of the emergence of digital platforms and the support they receive from legislators in most countries.
Addressing the social protection of platform workers, the French legislator in 2016 and then in 2019 made moves to incorporate these workers into the general social security regime with regard to certain covered risks (work injury and occupational diseases), and to improve adequacy (enabling possible access to complementary coverage). However, these moves rest on radically opposed perspectives. Rather than reasserting the legal responsibility of the employer vis-à-vis workers’ health and safety, we see responsibility placed with the platform, but only on a voluntary basis under the aegis of corporate social responsibility. This risks fragmenting social benefits, to be determined by each platform, thus weakening the practices of mutual protection and risk pooling among enterprises and workers that lie at the heart of social security. In doing so, the legislator has broken the link that had as its historic objective the goal of social inclusion and has encouraged in different ways the privatization, or a re-commodification, of social security in the commercial interest of private insurance companies. Moreover, this has been done using the Trojan Horse of the French labour code. This approach is in contrast to the converging position of international organizations, such as the European Union, International Labour Organization or the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, recommending that States establish a right to social protection for all atypical workers and non-salaried workers. Instead of identifying the common challenges that face workers who work for platforms, and offering responses specific to their situation, rather, it considers platform work as one of the new forms of atypical work undertaken by those who may have the status of employee or self-employed.
The right to social security is enshrined in article 23 of the Belgian Constitution. It is the role of the legislator to implement it, to guarantee the right of all to lead a life in accordance with human dignity. Studies show that platform workers face major difficulties in terms of social protection. The aim of this article is to highlight the limits of existing legislative provisions regarding their ability to implement the fundamental right to social security for platform workers. With regard to these legislative provisions, we are interested in both the general regulations that shape the Belgian social security system and the recent measures adopted by the Belgian legislator with regard to the so-called sharing economy. An analysis of these provisions reveals that a number of platform workers are excluded from social security, both de facto and de jure. At the very least, this raises the question of whether the Belgian legislator is complying with the positive obligation to fulfil the constitutional right to social security for platform workers, and the negative obligation, at least, not to undermine it.
In Egypt, the Food Subsidy Programme (FSP) contributes greatly to social stability, yet there is academic and political pressure to reform the system to prioritize the effective targeting of the poor. This has been particularly so since the 2011 Egyptian revolution, and in the light of claims by the government and international organizations that the programme is relatively expensive and ineffective in targeting the poor. Accordingly, the ability to measure the programme’s targeting performance is crucial, not least to assess the targeting outcome of this anti-poverty intervention. Most previous studies of the Egyptian FSP address the challenges of exclusion and inclusion errors exclusively from an econometric approach. However, in this study a mixed approach method is developed to better explain the programme and to explore how its governance structure might play an important role in determining its effectiveness. This method generates both a statistically reliable measure of the magnitude of the targeting performance as well as a greater depth of understanding of the programme’s effectiveness in achieving targeting outcomes. Additionally, understanding the actual targeting mechanism should help policy-makers improve its effectiveness, and ultimately support a comprehensive reform to build an effective social protection system.
Processes of public policy formation and implementation in the Middle East and North Africa are underexplored. This article presents a case study in public policy reform, focusing on efforts to expand health insurance coverage in Egypt. The account draws on a thematic analysis of peer and non-peer reviewed literature and print media between 2005 and 2015, with a particular focus on the period to 2011. This analysis shows that reform initiatives failed for much of this period because of fundamental disagreements between key actors over the goals, proposals and the political process for change. The success of planned reforms in Egypt may well depend on the extent to which account is taken of the varied agendas and evolving power relations of these actors, especially given the profound political, social and economic challenges the Egyptian health system now faces.
The current refugee crisis requires new thinking and durable policies which move beyond simply meeting the short-term immediate needs of refugees. In the context of this protracted crisis, humanitarian response has included a focus on cash transfer programming as a way to support Syrian refugees in Jordan to meet their basic needs. While evidence on cash transfers in stable contexts has been well-documented over the last two decades, little is known about the potential effects of cash transfers on populations in protracted displacement. This article examines the economic and social effects of a UNHCR cash transfer programme for Syrian refugees in urban areas in Jordan. We find that almost all beneficiaries used the transfer to pay rent, and that this reduces stress and anxiety among beneficiaries. These effects are important, but depend on the continuation of cash transfer support. For longer-term impacts, assistance for refugees needs to move beyond short-term support and align better with national interventions and a broader enabling policy environment, including refugees’ right to work.
This article compares the effectiveness and efficiency of a food and energy subsidy programme, which is currently implemented by the Tunisian government, and a universal child allowance programme that is discussed as an alternative to these subsidies. The empirical analysis is based on microsimulations on the poverty impact and the costs of both programmes based on Tunisian household survey data. Our results suggest that a universal child allowance is approximately twice as efficient (i.e. the cost of lifting one person out of poverty under a universal child allowance is half of the cost of lifting one person out of poverty using subsidies) in reducing poverty than the current food and energy subsidies. The article concludes that efficiency-enhancing social protection reforms are possible based on a universal approach. Such reforms can be achieved without resorting to narrow poverty-targeting as an alternative to the subsidies whose negative side-effects (e.g. non-negligible exclusion errors, incentives to informality and social tensions) and costs (both public and private costs related to intensive data collection to improve targeting) are usually overlooked or underestimated.
The introductory article of this special issue looks at the genesis, characteristics and challenges of social protection schemes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It argues that social protection policies in the MENA should be seen as a key ingredient of the social contract that governments offered to their citizens after independence. To compensate for the lack of political participation and accountability, free public health and education systems, generous food, energy and water subsidies, social insurance and assistance schemes and mass public-sector employment were established. This was possible because MENA countries benefitted from substantial windfall profits (from the export of oil, gas and minerals; Suez Canal user fees), as well as from income from remittances from migrant workers and income from politically motivated aid. The decline of income from some of these sources and population growth has led MENA governments to focus more closely their social protection spending on strategically important social groups: typically, the urban upper middle class. As a result, social protection systems in MENA countries currently suffer from severe weaknesses in terms of social fairness, efficiency and sustainability. Although MENA countries still spend a very considerable share of gross domestic product on their social protection schemes, these have only very limited effects on the reduction of poverty, vulnerability and inequality – and some even exhibit perverse “bottom-up” redistributive outcomes. The articles that comprise this special issue selectively spotlight a number of opportunities and challenges for the development of sustainable social protection in the MENA countries.
Youth unemployment is a major socio-political issue in the Arab countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). However, active labour market programmes (ALMPs) in support of youth employment remain less prevalent and are generally outside the purview of social policies in the region’s countries. This article addresses this inconsistency. The article provides an overview of such programmes and identifies the challenges to their inclusion as a central part of the region’s social policy mix. Internationally, the article notes that successful models for the integration of ALMPs into social policies have been part of long-term reforms targeting inclusive social security systems. This has not been the case in Arab countries where access to contributory social security systems is limited and where labour markets are characterized by large informal economies and a majority of workers are without social protection. Further contributing factors pertain to limited state budgets and a limited knowledge base about the effectiveness of ALMPs in the region.