The Table, No. 16: From evidence to a draft standard

Friday, 29 May 2026

From the Founding Secretariat

This week’s work moved from reviewing evidence to putting proposed language in front of members. On 26 May, the Platform Council issued a draft resolution on the Platform Fairness Standard. It is a draft, not an adopted standard: members will have a chance to examine it and comment before any Assembly ballot.

That distinction matters. Reseated’s process is intended to make room for evidence, scrutiny and revision before a request is made of any company or public body. A report can point to a problem; it does not, by itself, settle what the answer should be. The records published this week show that work taking place across several councils.

Thank you to everyone who has filed evidence, joined a session, or helped make the documents clear enough for others to use. The Secretariat will keep the record open and the next steps visible.

The week at the table

The central document this week is RC/PL/2026/L.1, Draft resolution: the Platform Fairness Standard, dated 26 May. It follows the Platform Council’s pattern review and the passage of PL-001 through the five-part pattern test on 12 May. The draft puts a proposed standard into a form that can be considered, questioned and amended. It does not yet represent a decision by the Assembly, or a commitment by any platform.

The five-part test—Volume, Frequency, Consistency, Spread and Corroboration—is a check against treating one person’s experience as proof of a general practice. The draft is a different stage of the work: a proposal that members can assess against the evidence and the practical consequences for small businesses. Public consultation is scheduled to open on 2 June and run through 2 July. Until then, the text is available as a draft for members to read and prepare questions about.

Two other records show the range of the week’s work. On 28 May, the Cashflow Council issued RC/CF/2026/21, a letter to India’s Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises concerning enforcement of section 15 and section 43B(h). The letter is addressed to a public authority, rather than to a company. Its subject is enforcement; the record should be read as a council communication, not as evidence of a response from the Ministry.

The Team Council’s fourth-session summary record, RC/TM/2026/SR.4, and the record of Open Table 4, RC/A/2026/SR.4, also entered the document record this week. Open Table 4 had two sittings. These records make the work of the sessions available beyond the people who were in the room, while preserving the distinction between a summary record and an adopted policy.

Finally, the Team Council received evidence submission RC/TM/2026/S.2, “Training, Turnover and the Small Employer.” It joins the council’s evidence base; it is not, on its own, a finding about how common any particular experience is. Each of these documents has a different function, but all contribute to a process in which evidence is recorded before recommendations are settled.

By the numbers

As of 29 May, Reseated had 783 members in 49 countries. Members had filed 2,058 reports from 50 countries. The member and report figures describe different things: reports may come from places where there are not currently seated members, and more than one report may concern a practice or experience.

Reports by council were:

• Platform: 1,140
• Cashflow: 558
• Fair Play: 139
• Red Tape: 81
• Trade: 75
• Team: 35
• Resilience: 30

The council totals add to 2,058. They are counts of reports filed, not counts of unique businesses, verified legal violations or completed pattern tests. The distinction is important: the numbers show the scale and distribution of the evidence gathered so far, while each issue still has to be assessed through the agreed process.

From the table

A small employer takes time to train a new member of staff. The work is practical: showing someone how to handle a busy shift, use the systems correctly and deal with the questions that come up when a customer needs help. When that worker leaves, the owner does not simply post a vacancy and start again. The owner covers the work in the meantime, shifts hours around, and tries to teach the next person without letting service slip.

In a small team, that cycle can have consequences beyond the cost of hiring. The people who remain take on extra tasks; the owner has less time for planning or serving customers; and the next training period begins before the last one has fully paid off. None of that proves a single cause of turnover. It does explain why members may describe staffing and retention as a business resilience issue, rather than a matter confined to an individual employment decision.

This is the kind of human detail that evidence records need to hold alongside counts and dates. It can help a council ask useful questions: how often is this reported, in what kinds of businesses, and what corroborating evidence is available? The answers should come from members’ reports and review, not from assuming that one account represents every small employer.

Coming up

2 June–2 July: the public consultation on the Platform Fairness Standard draft is scheduled to run for one month. Members and other participants will be able to comment on the proposed text. The consultation is the opportunity to identify language that is unclear, explain practical effects, and submit evidence that supports or challenges the proposal. Consultation does not guarantee that a draft will be adopted unchanged.

Open Tables are held monthly. The next sessions will provide another opportunity to hear from members across regions; session details will be shared through Reseated’s usual channels. The councils will continue reviewing reports through the five-part pattern test and developing work in their respective areas. No ballot date for the draft standard has been announced in the records available as of today.

June also includes MSME Day on 27 June. The United Nations estimates that micro, small and medium-sized enterprises account for about 90% of businesses, 60–70% of employment and around 50% of GDP worldwide. Those global estimates describe why small-business conditions matter; Reseated’s own report counts are a separate, member-submitted evidence base.

One thing you can do

Before the Platform Fairness Standard consultation opens, read RC/PL/2026/L.1 and mark one passage that is either clear and useful or difficult to apply in a real small business. When the consultation opens on 2 June, send a specific comment: explain the practice or situation you have in mind, what the draft gets right or misses, and—where possible—what evidence supports your view.

If you are sharing an experience, leave out your business name and any details that could identify another person or business without permission. Specific, carefully described evidence helps the councils test patterns; a clear proposed change helps the Assembly decide what to do with them.