Between Control and Invisibility: Platform Workers and the Limits of Protection in Poland and Slovakia

Platform work has become a growing, yet largely invisible, component of labor markets in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), offering income opportunities but also reinforcing precarity, informality, and exclusion especially for migrant and low-income workers. This article examines how national stakeholders in Poland and Slovakia respond to the Platform Work Directive of the European Union (EU), which aims at improving working conditions in the digital labor economy. Based on seventeen in-depth interviews with trade unions, government officials, platform representatives, and labor experts, the study uncovers deep ambivalence about the Directive’s potential to bring meaningful change in the working conditions of platform workers. While many see it as a long-overdue step toward formalizing rights and addressing bogus self-employment, others warn of merely formal transposition with weak enforcement and limited impact. Stakeholders highlight serious concerns about administrative capacity, lack of legal clarity, and the risk of undermining the flexibility that many workers, especially migrants, rely on. The findings point to a broader issue: in the absence of robust, pluralist interest representation and strong domestic labor institutions, national actors often receive EU regulation passively, treating it as an external obligation rather than a transformative opportunity. The Directive may elevate platform work on the policy agenda, yet it is unlikely, on its own, to alter the deeper structural inequalities and power asymmetries shaping platform work in CEE countries. The article argues for a more socially grounded approach to policy implementation, one that centers the lived realities and voices of workers at the margins.