The Counter-app series explores how app-based workers can counter the power of their algorithmic bosses. Each episode is based on cutting-edge research by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) on platform work and how workers are resisting digitised exploitation.In the final episode of this mini-series, journalist and researcher Ben Wray takes a deep-dive into the EU's recent Platform Work Directive, which Member States must transpose into their national legal regimes by December 2026.The episode is based on 'The Platform Work Directive: Trade union guide to transposition', the fourth and final report of the ETUC's Fair Platforms project, a series of manuals on work in the platform economy. Interested in hearing other 'voices on the world of work'? Take a look back at previous seasons of etui.podcast.AcknowledgementsThanks to Martin Willems, Daniel Cruz and Silvia Rainone for their contributions to this episode. Credits GeenStijl (2023). 'Uber Files: "Ruthless greed and state failure", testifies whistleblower Mark MacGann'. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLjBzIgqVvk Timestamps00:00 to 01:32: Introduction 1:33 to 04:52: Part 1 - The legal presumption of employment 04:53 to 08:46: Part 2 - Procedural laws 08:47 to 12:19: Part 3 - Intermediaries 12:20 to 14:47: Part 4 - Algorithmic management 14:48 to 20:24: Part 5 - Enforcement 20:25 to 20:54: Outro

link: https://www.etuc.org/sites/default/files/publication/file/2026-02/ETUC%20Manual%20OSH.pdfTime stamps:00:00 to 00:48: Introduction00:49 to 08:10: Part 1: Sebastian Galassi’s story08:11 to 14:01: Part 2: Psycho-social hazards14:02 to 18:37: Part 3: How can we ensure health & safety in platform work?18:38 to 19:08: Outro

STRUCTUREIntroduction: 00:00 to 00:5400:55 to 2:32: Part 1: What is Uberisation?02:33 to 07:25: Part 2: What makes an industry vulnerable to Uberisation?07:26 to 09:58: Part 3: 5 industries vulnerable to Uberisation - 1) Education09:59 to 11:58: 2) Mental health care11:59 to 14:31: 3) Music14:32 to 17:10: 4) Agency work17:11 to 21:52: 5) Data annotation21:53 to 23:25: Part 4: De-Uberisation23:26 to 23:56: OutroCREDITSBackground music: ‘Embrace’, by Evgeny Bardyuzha (downloaded with a creative commons licence from pixabay.com).Interviews with Samantha Howe, Linas Mazgeika, Elmar Smid and Jonas Valente were conducted in person at the ETUC ‘Platforum’ in Nicosia, Cyprus, September 25-26. Thanks to all.HighLine Executives (2025). ‘THE Uber for Videography and Photography | Kawser Khan | HTX | S2 E7’. Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipFPXFIKoucFinweek Magazine (2016). ‘finweek Money Matters: The "Uber" for handymen’. Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTYgUJCPY_EDownieLive (2023). ‘I tried the "UBER" for PRIVATE JETS!’ Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq8CA2-y4FQThe Rideshare Guy (2022). ‘People Are Doing LAUNDRY For Others As A SIDE HUSTLE! - "The Uber for Laundry”’. Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO2NG8NxGwADRONE ON Podcast (2025). ‘Spexi: Why the Uber for Drone Data thinks the World Map Needs an Upgrade | DRONE ON’. Youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSYnMaEsL2cEverything Electric TECH (2024). ‘This Flatpack Electric Van Is The Uber For Potatoes! |Fully Charged Show Podcast with OX Delivers’. Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMIcmYOBd-EHouse of New Mobility (2016). ’CES16 - URGENT.LY: We are the Uber for tow trucks’. Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lJjB3ormB4Kate Ferguson (2024). ‘How online therapy became big business’. DW News.https://www.dw.com/en/online-therapy-has-become-a-billion-dollar-business/video-70805828BetterHelp (2025). ‘Get Matched With a Therapist That Fits Your Needs, Style, and Goals’. Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJE55BNmo2ETEDx Talks (2019). ‘Building a global brand, locally | Rafe Offer | TEDxLSE’. Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WDGVPNrgQI

The Counter-app series explores how app-based workers can counter the power of their algorithmic bosses. Each episode is based on cutting-edge research by the European Trade Union Confederation on platform work and how workers are resisting digitised exploitation. In this first episode, Ben Wray looks at what algorithmic management is, how it affects workers and what data tools and tactics workers can use to 'negotiate the algorithm'. The episode is based on a trade union manual to Negotiating the Algorithm published by the ETUC in September, which you can download here: https://www.etuc.org/en/publication/fair-platforms-project-thematic-reports Structure00:00 - 00:58: Introduction 00:59 - 03:33: Part 1: What is algorithmic management? 03:34 - 08:35: Part 2: What problems do workers face from algorithmic management? 08:36 - 12:07: Part 3: How do workers ‘negotiate the algorithm’? 12:08 - 19:50: Part 4: What are workers’ data tools? 19:51 - 22:03: Part 5: How do unions build their data capacities? 22:04 - 23:55: Conclusion  Credits Background music: ‘Embrace’, by Evgeny Bardyuzha (downloaded with a creative commons licence from pixabay.com) Interviews were conducted in-person with Fiachra Ó Luain, Lucie Morpurgo and Daniel Cruz in Nicosia, Cyprus, September 2025. Thanks to all. Ben Wray (2022). ’Data Power in the gig economy: Interview with data expert Jessica Pidoux’. The Gig Economy Project.https://open.spotify.com/episode/0XwcoHYn2FkcmHPU2FQbrU Ben Wray (2022). ‘Algorithms, Work and the European Directive: Interview with James Farrar and Sergi Cutillas’. The Gig Economy Project.https://open.spotify.com/episode/3UEBpCVRN3bRjw14Xu1YGX Sarah Beckmann (2023), ‘The Shipt Calculator: Crowdsourcing Gig Worker Pay Data to Audit Algorithmic Management’. MIT Media.https://www.media.mit.edu/videos/hd-shipt-app-tracker-2023-02-22/ Eric Gardner (2024). 'NEW: We put 7 Uber & Lyft drivers in one room and had them open their apps.’ More Perfect Union.https://x.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1833187863498002850 The Modern Mann (2025). ‘Interview: Revenge Of Gig Worker Armin Samii’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjgKL7z4Ovw Bethany Staunton, Silvia Rainone (2025). ‘What makes the Platform Work Directive a milestone? (etui.podcast)’. ETUI.https://www.etui.org/news/what-makes-platform-work-directive-milestone-etuipodcast

To close this season, etui.podcast went a little further afield than usual to take a look at the United States labour relations landscape with Kayla Blado, who recently served as Director of Congressional and Public Affairs at the US National Labor Relations Board.  In our chat she offered some insights from her experience at the federal agency, into the recent, particularly volatile chapter in US politics, and into the country’s industrial relations system more broadly. Interested in hearing some more of our interviews? Take a look back at this and previous seasons of etui.podcast here. 

The European Commission recently launched an evaluation of the 2014 directives which shape the rules around public procurement, the process by which public contracts are put out to tender. Trade unions have called for a revision that ensures the inclusion of criteria based on quality, rather than only price. In particular, they have argued that these rules can be used as a tool to improve labour conditions and promote collective bargaining, rather than allowing some employers to be undercut by those who show less respect for workers’ rights and trade union engagement.  Discussion with Niklas Bruun, professor of law at the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, about his recent paper for the ETUI on how EU public procurement law can be improved. Stan De Spiegelaere, Director of Policy and Research at UNI Europa, the trade union federation of service workers, lends some further insight into how the current problems play out on the ground.  Further readingPromoting collective bargaining in public procurement | etuiCollective bargaining and public procurement in Germany | etuiProcuring Decent Work - UNI Europa

‘Invest now or deindustrialise’ was the recent, stark warning put to the EU by industrial trade unions. Continued heavy losses in manufacturing jobs over the past decades are now culminating in what has been termed a crisis for European industry and the many workers it employs.But how should this crisis be addressed? Is the European Commission taking the right approach with the recently presented Clean Industrial Deal? And what could a worker-friendly European industrial policy look like today? Discussion with Judith Kirton-Darling, General Secretary of the industrial workers’ federation ⁠industriAll Europe⁠, and Ludovic Voet, Confederal Secretary at the European Trade Union Confederation.Further readingIndustrial policy for quality jobs and a just transition | etuiBenchmarking Working Europe 2024 | etui Green transition and job quality: risks for worker representation | etui Workers and the climate challenge | etui The future of the automotive sector | etuiProvisions for social conditionality, employment security and anticipation and management of change in the Clean Industrial Deal ETUC calls for adequate financing and responsible simplification in the Clean Industrial Deal | ETUC

Amidst all the current debates in Europe about competitiveness, productivity, migration, and economic transitions – both ‘green’ and ‘digital’ - the ongoing issue of labour shortages has emerged as a major policy concern, intrinsically tied to all of the above.But what are the major factors driving these shortages? Where do we see them the most? And what kinds of solutions would be the most effective?  Discussion with ETUI Senior Researcher Wouter Zwysen, author of multiple recent papers on labour shortages, job quality, and workers' bargaining power. Further reading:⁠Labour shortages, job quality and workers’ bargaining power | etui⁠⁠Labour shortages – turning away from bad jobs | etui⁠⁠Monopsony and non-competitive labour markets | etui⁠⁠Benchmarking Working Europe 2024 | etui⁠⁠Wage inequality in Europe | etuiLowering wage inequality through collectively negotiated minima | etui⁠⁠Green transition and job quality: risks for worker representation | etuiIndustrial policy for quality jobs and a just transition | etui⁠⁠What are governments doing about low-wage employment – and how successful is it? | etui⁠⁠Job quality in turbulent times | etui

Security is the watchword across European politics today.But what is the place for social and environmental policy in a security-conscious, or even security-driven, Europe? And where does the trade union movement fit in?Discussion with ETUI Senior Researcher Christophe Degryse about his recent Foresight Brief, ‘What if? A socio-environmental agenda in a 'security Europe'?’Further reading   What if? A socio-environmental agenda in a 'security Europe'? | etuiRethinking social protection in the green transition | etuiIndustrial policy for quality jobs and a just transition | etuiSocial policy in the European Union: state of play 2023 | etui

The standard 40-hour work week has been around for a while now as our full-time norm. But in recent times, debates about working time reduction appear to have been making somewhat of a comeback – particularly in the form of the 4-day week idea. Is it time to rethink our working time norms? And what role is the labour movement playing in this debate? Discussion with Agnieszka Piasna, ETUI Senior Researcher and co-author of the paper ‘Negotiating working time reduction’. Further reading   Negotiating working time reduction | etui ‘Winning back our time’, in HesaMag#29, Navigating the AI revolution | etui Friday on my mind - Working time in the manufacturing sector | etui The why and how of working time reduction | etui