House of the self-employed

The project

The House of the Self-Employed opens up new access to information and networking for the self-employed and solo self-employed. Many activities that used to be performed by employees are now outsourced to the self-employed, especially the solo self-employed, albeit under different conditions. To ensure that solo self-employed workers are not left behind economically compared to dependent employees, it is important to strengthen joint representation of interests and collective measures - also with regard to their remuneration. Up to now, however, there has been a lack of opportunities to exchange experiences and access to knowledge on how to assert rights, help shape working conditions and protect against social risks.

This is precisely where the House of the Self-Employed comes in and makes it its central task to

• to survey and evaluate the needs of this group of gainfully employed persons,
• to enable exchange and networking in an analog as well as a virtual space,
• to inform the solo self-employed and platform employees about the collective possibilities of shaping their own working and living conditions, especially with regard to the remuneration situation and social security,
• to provide information about cross-industry training and continuing education opportunities in the context of digitization,
• to develop and test new teaching and learning methods for specific target groups,
• to advise on and support collective forms of interest representation,
• to provide a service for settling disputes between self-employed persons and their clients.

Self-employed persons and especially solo self-employed persons are gainfully employed in very different professional fields with an enormous range of skills and working conditions. The House of the Self-Employed is open to all who want to work together to improve their working conditions. The exchange thrives on the diversity of experiences, whether they have been made in classic self-employment or with new digital services, within an organized association or with an independent initiative. The House of the Self-Employed finds its regional anchoring and physical implementation in Leipzig. Its complementary virtual counterpart also aims to promote the representation of interests in eastern Germany on a supraregional level and is intended to radiate throughout Germany.
 

Promotion

The "House of the Self-Employed" project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the European Social Fund as part of the funding guideline "Future Centers - Supporting SMEs, Employees and the Self-Employed in Developing and Implementing Innovative Design Approaches to Master the Digital Transformation" (duration May 1, 2020 - June 30, 2022).
 

The project network

The "House of the Self-Employed" is a joint project of INPUT Consulting gGmbH, the United Services Union ver.di, the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Institute of Sociology) and the University of Kassel (Department of Information Systems and Systems Development)
 

Contact

Prof. Dr. Matthias Söllner
Florian Weber, M. Sc.