Who is self-employed? Self-employment and social protection in the EU legal system

Elena Gramano

Chapter 5 in Dilemmas of EU Free Movement Law, 2026, pp 89-108 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter examines the limited and fragmented social protection available to self-employed workers in the EU, highlighting how EU law has historically centred on subordinate employment while largely overlooking genuine self-employment. It traces the CJEU's broad interpretation of “worker,” which often reclassifies nominally self-employed individuals to ensure access to labour protections, and contrasts this with the absence of dedicated safeguards for those who are genuinely autonomous yet economically vulnerable. The chapter assesses recent EU initiatives—anti-discrimination measures, collective bargaining guidelines for solo self-employed persons, and the Platform Work Directive—showing that such reforms primarily combat bogus self-employment or extend employee protections rather than address structural imbalances faced by genuine self-employed workers. It argues that a coherent EU-level framework is needed to ensure social protection, fairness, and dignity for self-employed individuals whose livelihoods depend on personal labour.

Keywords: Self-employment; Bogus self-employment; Platform work; Collective bargaining for solo self-employed workers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781839107825
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