Understanding Industrial Relations in the Platform Economy in EU: Insights from Southern and Central and Eastern Europe

5 June 2025 By

As digital platforms reshape the world of work, they are also shaking up the systems that govern collective and individual labour relations. Our latest research takes a deep dive into how industrial relations—essentially, the rules and relations between the organisations of social partners: workers, employers, and governments—are changing in the platform economy. We focused on four countries: Italy, Spain, Poland, and Portugal, with a wider lens on the EU.

University of Wrocław, CoLABOR, University of Barcelona and University of Bologna teams conducted problem-centred interviews with key actors in early 2024—workers, unionists and traditional employers, policymakers, and platforms representatives—to build on findings from our earlier background research. The interviews conducted offer fresh insights and help sharpen the focus for upcoming case studies.

Here are the key takeaways from what we have learned so far:

👉 Labour standards are being downgraded. Platform work often means fewer protections and weaker rights for workers, eroding the hard-won rights and institutions of traditional collective labour relations.

👉 Big tech vs. the state. The platform economy is not just about apps—it is also about power asymmetry between capital and labour as well as capital and states. Tensions are rising between digital giants and governments over how labour relations are regulated.

👉 Collective representation is under pressure. As platform work spreads, established structures like trade unions are struggling to maintain their influence even in the South European countries, in which their position is traditional stronger as compared to Eastern Europe. Additionally, social dialogue institutions are weakening in the face of Big Tech expansion.

👉 New forms of workers organising are emerging. The crisis in trade unionism has spurred grassroots mobilisation. New radical trade unions, worker collectives and informal ways of organising and mobilising workers are stepping in where formal structures are faltering. This is paralleled by the emergence of new employer organizations of platform and technological companies.

👉 Not all countries are equally vulnerable. Some national labour systems—especially those with strong, centralised bargaining frameworks—are better equipped to resist the pressures exerted by the digital giants. In other countries, platformisation is met with the greater politicisation of labour relations. This is a situation where the role of collective bargaining in solving problems is replaced by political decisions made by the state, that is the institutions such as national governments and parliaments or their agencies. In this context, the importance of lobbying at both the national and EU levels increases.

👉 A complex network of institutions and actors. From tech giants and EU institutions to grassroots collectives, think tanks, NGO’s and the media, many actors are shaping how platform work evolves—and how it is governed.

In sum, our research shows that platformisation is not just a technological shift—it’s a political and social one. As we move forward, understanding these dynamics will be crucial for shaping fairer, more sustainable models of work in Europe’s digital future.

By Szymon Pilch, Adam Mrozowicki, Olga Gitkiewicz (University of Wrocław)