Working on digital platforms in Romania, a steady source of income for more and more workers

Working through digital platforms (e.g., Uber, Glovo, Bolt, or Wolt) has become a common way for many workers in Romania to earn income. A percentage of 62.5% of workers who use digital work platforms in Romania resort to this type of activity on a regular basis, and 43.7% devote more than 20 hours per week to it, according to data from a 2021 EIGE survey, processed by the Social Monitor, a project of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Romania.

The study is based on a survey that collected data from nearly 5,000 platform workers in ten European Union countries: Denmark, Finland, France, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

In the other nine European countries analyzed, the percentage of those who regularly use digital platforms for work is also high compared to those who do so occasionally or sporadically: Poland – 66.2%, the Netherlands – 65.1%, France – 64.1%, Spain – 62%. Slightly lower percentages are recorded in the Nordic countries: Finland – 55.8%, Denmark – 52.1%.

In terms of the distribution of workers by gender, it can be seen that in all the countries analyzed, the proportion of men is higher. Thus, in Romania, of the total number of workers on digital platforms, 55.9% are men and 44.1% are women. The largest gender differences are found in the Nordic countries, where the percentage of men working on platforms is much higher than that of women: in Finland – 66.7% men vs. 33.3% women; in the Netherlands – 65.4% men vs. 34.6% women. The smallest gender gap is observed in Poland, where men represent 51.9% and women 48.1% of workers on digital platforms.

Romania does not yet have a legislative framework regulating the occupational status of platform workers. For this reason, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Romania lagged behind certain European countries in terms of the number of people working on digital platforms. According to the EIGE survey, apart from activities performed through digital labour platforms, 67.8% of workers in Romania were employed, and 13.5% declared that they were self-employed. A similar situation was recorded in Spain – 67.3% were employed compared to 9.7% self-employed, in Poland – 69.7% were employed compared to 9.8% self-employed, and in Slovenia – 61.6% were employed and 10.3% self-employed. Regardless of their declared occupational status, platform workers work in highly individualized arrangements, with limited opportunities for collective bargaining and unionization, in a legislative vacuum that leaves room for abuse and exploitation of Romanian workers.

Romania needs to address the gaps in current labor legislation regarding the occupational status of platform workers and apply provisions to improve working conditions and social protection, in line with the new European Directive approved in 2024.

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Data source: 

• EIGE https://eige.europa.eu/gender-statistics/dgs/browse/eige/eige_pw
• EUROSTAT https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/lfst_dpw_01/default/table?lang=en&category=labour.employ.lfst.lfst_dpw

Data processing and text design: Delia Bădoi

Infographic: Pascalone Media SRL

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