In April, mobility solutions company Bolt reduced taxi fares for customers, which unfortunately resulted in a significant decrease in earnings for drivers on the platform.

The law provides numerous protections for employees under employment contracts, including ensuring adequate rest periods. In the transportation of goods and passengers, drivers must adhere to strict work and rest regulations, and compliance with these rules is monitored through the use of tachographs.

However, drivers using the Bolt platform are not employed by Bolt, as they are essentially independent service providers using a platform service, and thus labor law protections do not apply to them. To maintain their previous earnings, they need to spend more time driving, which in turn leads to the presence of overly tired drivers on the roads.

Üllar Kallas, chairman of the Transport Workers' Union, told ERR that this situation is unfair to the workers, though they cannot technically be called employees because Bolt's system treats them differently from traditional employment relationships.

"This results in a lack of adequate social security for the workers and raises safety issues related to work and rest time," he explained.

Kallas believes that workers performing hazardous jobs, including vehicle drivers, should clearly be under a formal employment relationship.

"Being behind the wheel for 24 hours is dangerous both for the driver and for those using the service. And now that the prices have been lowered, people are inevitably inclined to work more just to earn the same amount as before, but this results in even greater fatigue," Kallas noted.

A driver working on the Bolt platform shared with ERR a screenshot of their work statistics over the last three months, which showed they had worked 813 hours and 29 minutes during that period. With a standard eight-hour workday, this would translate to an impossible scenario of working 34 days each month.

The police are categorical about the risks of driving while sleepy. Taavi Kirss, head of the PPA's traffic monitoring service, stated that driving while fatigued could be fatal and is comparable to drunk driving because it reduces reaction times and divides attention.

"A tired person can easily fall asleep at the wheel, leading to head-on collisions at full speed or running off the road. Just in the last few weeks in Tallinn alone, there have been a couple of incidents where people have fallen asleep while driving, causing accidents and ending up in the hospital. European traffic accident statistics also show that at least one-fifth of traffic accidents in Europe are related to driver fatigue," Kirss remarked.

According to Kirss, companies can also do a lot to ensure that drivers are not a danger to themselves or others, whether through some technological platform that can identify drivers who are tired, speeding, violating traffic laws or committing other infractions, or indeed through stricter work and rest time regulations.

"Raising people's awareness that driving while fatigued is genuinely life-threatening would also be helpful. It's not just talk; these are real situations happening in Europe and on our roads in Estonia," Kirss added.

Most taxi drivers not union members

Üllar Kallas pointed out that while taxi drivers generally do not join transport unions in Estonia, in other parts of the world, taxi drivers often are union members.

"Through these unions, they have been able to communicate better with the owners of these service platforms and negotiate fairer conditions. Currently, we are in a situation where the platform owner unilaterally decides to lower prices, leaving the other party with the 'take it or leave it' option," stated the head of the Transport Workers' Union.

He considers this to be a gray area that is very detrimental to people because if a worker becomes incapacitated due to overwork or is involved in an accident, all responsibility is pushed onto them, and the platform owner, who profits, washes their hands of the situation and simply replaces the worker.

"People who have suffered this damage end up being supported by the social system, meaning we as a country and as taxpayers end up covering these losses of working capacity," Kallas noted.

To improve the situation, Kallas suggests that taxi drivers should join representative organizations themselves, as grumbling in smoking circles at taxi stands doesn't solve anything. The state should also intervene.

Kallas argued that the current system represents unfair competition and that if the same rules applied to Bolt drivers as to other workers, it would benefit both employees and employers, as companies using unfair tactics would lose their competitive edge and the state would benefit from fair taxation. Additionally, allowing drivers adequate rest would result in more healthy years lived.

Workers responsible for ensuring they're not a danger to themselves and others

Maria-Helena Rahumets, an advisor at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications' labor relations and environment department, emphasized that under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, it is the worker's responsibility to ensure that their work or service provision does not endanger their own or others' life and health.

"For example, if an employee works a main job in an office and provides courier services on a platform part-time, it is their responsibility to ensure that working multiple jobs does not compromise their or others' health, such as from being overtired and distracted," she explained.

Rahumets added that adhering to work and rest time restrictions is essential to prevent overwork, occupational diseases and workplace accidents, and to minimize the risk of these occurrences.

"Platform work is the sole source of income for approximately 4.4 percent of platform workers, and often, platform work is done in addition to their main job, at times chosen freely according to their availability," she stated.

She also emphasized that platforms contribute significantly to job creation, entrepreneurship development and innovation, and that platforms should be supported. At the same time, she noted that it is essential to ensure good working conditions and the protection of health and safety for those working on platforms.

"Very low service prices should not come at the expense of people's work-related and social rights," she concluded.

Flexible working time comes with risk

Maria-Helena Rahumets highlighted that platform work can be conducted under various legal forms, and whether it involves an employment contract or a service provision contract affects the rights and obligations of the parties involved.

"If the platform directs and controls the work being done, as well as the manner, time and place of work, then the parties should enter into an employment contract. In such cases, platform workers must be guaranteed working conditions typical of employment relationships, such as minimum wage, adequate work and rest time, protection against dismissal, health checks and the opportunity to engage in collective bargaining," she detailed.

Conversely, if the worker is significantly independent in how, when and where they perform their work, according to Rahumets, they should operate as independent service providers, and the rules of labor law do not apply to them. In these cases, the conditions agreed upon between the parties prevail, including the platform's general terms and conditions.

She noted that it is not accurate to say that all platform workers should be independent service providers or, conversely, should work under an employment contract, as each contractual relationship is different, with its nuances and requires a case-by-case analysis.

"From what we know, platform work in Estonia today is mainly performed under a contract for services or through sole proprietorship (FIE), private limited companies (OÜ) or business accounts. We must acknowledge that the extensive flexibility of working hours brings both positives – easy integration of work and personal life, the opportunity to earn additional income – and risks – insufficient rest from work, risk of accidents," Rahumets explained. "We urge everyone to choose the form of work that reflects the reality of their situation."

Platform workers may not be aware of their rights

A representative from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications (MKM) stated that if a platform worker feels their legal relationship has been incorrectly classified, they can protect their rights by appealing to the Labor Dispute Committee or the courts, or by consulting with the Labor Inspectorate, which offers advisory services.

Üllar Kallas from the Transport Workers' Union noted that unfortunately, many Bolt drivers may not even be aware of their rights, considering that drivers are often foreigners who are unfamiliar with local laws and unaware of how to defend their rights.

"Foreigners brought to Estonia are often treated in a way that if they disagree with something, their employment is terminated," he explained, discussing the broader situation in the labor market. "When the employment is terminated, essentially the work visa also becomes invalid and they are sent out of the country. Then new replacements are brought in."

According to statistics from the Labor Inspectorate, last year, 21 percent of the applications received by the Labor Dispute Committee were related to foreign labor.

Kallas pointed out that this figure does not reflect the full extent of the problem, as these were just the few who knew to approach the Labor Dispute Committee.

Rahumets mentioned that improving platform work and the working conditions of platform workers is a focus and a priority at the European Union level. She referred to the Platform Work Directive approved by the Council of the European Union in March, noting that the next step is for the European Parliament to formally approve the agreement. After that, member states will need to begin transposing the directive into their legal systems to improve the conditions for platform work and increase transparency in the algorithmic management of platform work.

Bolt justified its recent price reduction to ERR as an attempt to attract more customers, as the number of drivers on the platform has exploded in the last six months. Moreover, according to Oscar Rõõm, a representative from Bolt's ride-sharing service, there are few Estonian taxi drivers, and most have come from Ukraine, Asia and other regions.

Rõõm also stated that Bolt does not want to limit the number of drivers who can use the service at once because it allows drivers to be more readily available, provides the service more cheaply and increases demand. Increased demand, in turn, improves earnings and attracts more drivers.

"This is how we see this wheel turning," Rõõm commented.

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