This Country Report Austria is part of the GDPoweR project on platform work in food delivery and ride-hailing. It explores three areas: how platforms collect and use worker data, social partners' strategies for negotiating collective agreements, and how these agreements are monitored and enforced.
The report outlines Austria’s collective bargaining system, noting that agreements exist in both sectors. Two of the three largest food delivery platforms have works councils with strong rights, especially over GPS data collection. However, platforms may bypass agreements and protections by using free service providers or self-employed workers.
A key methodological innovation was using data donations from workers who requested their personal data from platforms. Findings show all companies collect basic contractual data, but the extent of location and performance tracking varies, as does transparency about algorithmic management. While most workers knew what data was collected, many doubted the completeness of companies' GDPR responses. Views on data collection were mixed, with most emphasizing minimal and necessary use.
Finally, worker data was used to assess compliance with the collective agreement for bicycle couriers. No violations were found, but the method shows promise for monitoring and enforcing labour standards.
