EU platform workers expect a long wait for full-time rights
Same To Istock Workers Full Have Based Directive Platform Delivery Eu Taxi Give As Longer Than Wait Food For Them Workers The Drivers May The Picture: App Would Workers That Protections And Time Expected
Full-time employment protections for Europe's gig economy workers are unlikely to be approved anytime soon, as discussions around the EU Platform Workers Directive are making slower progress than anticipated.
The directive seeks to give full-time worker protections to EU-based workers operating via apps for a central platform employer; e.g. app-based taxi drivers and food delivery workers. However, the political discussions around the presumption of employment mean that these gig economy workers will continue to have self-employed status for the time being.
Political analysts believe that the discussions will not conclude during the current European Parliament. Thus, the directive is likely to be held over until after the outcome of the June 2024 European Parliament elections.
The directive is not being dropped, but the impetus behind it may stall as Europe’s politicians switch their focus in the coming months to getting themselves re-elected. While it was widely believed that seven EU member states opposed the directive, the latest European Commission discussions suggest that has now risen to 12 states.
While the Commission has not hosted a formal vote, European press agencies have widely reported that Estonia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden all oppose the current wording.
The directive’s latest — and most significant obstacle yet — has been France’s opposition. A few weeks ago, French Labour Minister, Olivier Dussopt, told the Permanent Representation in Brussels to vote against the directive.
“I do not understand how France is not willing to give platform workers, who are one of the most precarious categories of workers in the EU, basic social rights,” said Elisabetta Gualmini, the European Parliament rapporteur designated to manage the directive’s passage, in an interview with the Euractiv news service in Brussels.
“Emmanuel Macron is one of the most passionate promoters of Europe. He has always fought for a stronger and more autonomous Europe,” she said.
Ms Gualmini said the French opposition “risks being the killer of Social Europe”. She added: “This is completely unacceptable and not understandable to me.”
In 2022, there were an estimated 28 million platform workers in the EU. That number is expected to rise to 43 million by 2025. Employment analysts believe that around 5.5 million of these workers should be classified as full-time workers, but are currently denied the EU protections that come with that status.
The political and legal debates centre on whether or not these 5.5 million workers are incorrectly classified as self-employed (termed as “bogus self-employment”) and, as a result, are losing out on important labour and social protection rights.
The new rules aim to protect a presumption of an employment relationship that is deemed to exist when two out of a list of five indicators of control or direction are present. In due course, this list can be expanded by member states.
The indicators include: Determining the level of remuneration or setting upper limits; Supervising the performance of work through electronic means; Restricting the freedom to choose one's working hours or periods of absence, to accept or to refuse tasks, or to use sub-contractors or substitutes; Setting specific binding rules with regard to appearance, conduct towards the recipient of the service or performance of the work; Restricting the possibility to build a client base or to perform work for any third party.
When first proposed in 2021, there had been general support within the European Parliament for the directive. While political agreement was reached on the wording in December, the rules have since moved to platform workers to needing three out of seven indicators to attain full-time worker status.
The political opposition means that the directive is also unlikely to reach the majority it needs for EU Parliament approval. A file is adopted in Council when at least 55% of member states vote in favour, backed by member states accounting for at least 65% of the EU’s total population.
In late December, Tarun Tawalkey, a partner with law firm Lewis Silkin, wrote: “We covered the somewhat tortuous progress of this new law in our previous article ‘EU Platform Workers Directive — a further step forward’. In a final meeting that is reported to have lasted for some 11 hours, the European Parliament and EU Member States have now reached political agreement on the wording of the draft Directive.
“With over 28 million people working on digital platforms across the EU, a model commonly known as the ‘gig economy’, the European Commission first drafted legislation on platform working in 2021. The directive focuses on the employment status of platform workers and proposed new rights for individuals whose work involves the use of algorithmic technology.
“From the information that we have so far in the draft press releases, it does not seem that any significant changes have been made to the provisions on automated decision-making. The position will be clearer once the draft agreed text has been published.”
The next step is the formal approval of the agreement by the European Parliament and the Council. Member states will then have two years to incorporate the EU Directive into national law.
Mr Tawalkey added: “Assuming the process can be concluded before the terms of the current Commission and Parliament end in spring 2024, the usual two-year implementation period for Directives would mean that the member states have until spring 2026 to make the necessary changes to their domestic law.”