SWiPE Research Consortium organised EU Policies and Initiatives on Platform Work and Light Entrepreneurship seminar on 8th April. The keynote speaker of the seminar was Marco Torregrossa, the secretary general of the European Forum for Independent Professionals.
Torregrossa highlighted numerous examples of European countries and the United states about the good policy approaches and initiatives for platform work, freelancers and self-employment. These themes were widely discussed in the seminar. The role of self-employed workers is dealt with in different ways by the legislation of different countries. For example, in Germany and in the UK there is a will to create an own category for self-employed, in addition to employees and entrepreneurs. In turn, Belgium and Australia have sought to create a more precise definition for self-employed workers, which would be suitable for the existing legislation.
– The definition and status of self-employed workers are important in terms of social security and taxation, says Torregrossa. He also pointed out that we need to look carefully at whether self-employed workers can be referred as entrepreneurs. In Finland, for example, freelancers offering invoicing services are referred as light entrepreneurs. According to Torregrossa, this term is not used anywhere else than in Finland.
There are a number of examples of good practices in Europe which, in the opinion of Torregrossa, could also be introduced in Finland. Marco Torregrossa is hoping for more research and research-based policy recommendations on this subject.