Platform Labor Constitutionalism and the Transformation of Digital Work Governance:Comparative Regulatory Developments in the European Union and India, 2020–2026

Abstract

The expansion of digital labor platforms between 2020 and 2026 has fundamentally transformed labor
governance, regulatory institutions, constitutional rights, and socio-economic structures across contemporary
economies. This article examines how platform labor governance evolved through contrasting legal and
institutional trajectories in the European Union and India. The article argues that platform regulation has
increasingly shifted from traditional labor law toward a broader framework of digital constitutionalism,
algorithmic governance, and hybrid regulatory accountability. The European Union pursued a rights-based
and worker-protective governance model emphasizing employment presumptions, algorithmic transparency,
and platform accountability, while India adopted a welfare-oriented yet market-flexible approach centered on
social protection inclusion and digital economic expansion. Through comparative legal-institutional analysis,
the article demonstrates that governance effectiveness depends not only on statutory labor protections but
also on administrative capacity, digital infrastructure, judicial interpretation, and institutional coordination.
The findings reveal substantial divergence in regulatory coherence, algorithmic oversight, collective
bargaining protection, and social security integration. The article contributes to contemporary labor
governance scholarship by conceptualizing platform labor constitutionalism as a transformative governance
paradigm linking digital regulation, labor rights, institutional legitimacy, and socio-economic resilience. It
further demonstrates that platform governance increasingly constitutes a central field of global regulatory transformation involving the redistribution of authority among states, corporations, courts, and transnational
governance institutions.