Vom Umgang mit Regulierungslücken: Solo-Selbstständigkeit und Tarifautonomie

Those who are solo self-employed often find themselves in a precarious situation. On average, they earn less than dependent employees and, due to their structural inferiority, are often unable to negotiate good working conditions individually. Their disadvantage is even more amplified by gaps in labour and social law and where legislative efforts are required to close these gaps. This includes establishing minimum wage regulations and strengthening the legal basis for collective bargaining for the self-employed. Both the legislature and the social partners need to address these problems. A challenge for the social partners is to use the legal opportunities for collective bargaining. The green light for this comes from the European Union. The EU guideline on collective agreements for solo self-employed persons provides legal certainty by clarifying when collective agreements for the self-employed are credible in terms of competition law. This can be seen as a milestone towards strengthening the social rights of the self-employed at EU level, which it is to be hoped will be followed by initiatives at national level.