New EU law means gig economy workers must get better working conditions

The directive obliges EU countries to establish a rebuttable legal presumption of employment at a national level, which a European Parliament statement said aims to "correct the imbalance of power between the digital labour platform and the person performing platform work". 

Under the directive, the burden of proof lies with the platform, meaning that it is up to the platform to prove that there is no employment relationship.

Dublin MEP Ciarán Cuffe welcomed the enhanced protections for workers, but cautioned that the EU must "go much further" to strengthen their rights. He said the law was "watered down significantly during the negotiations" after originally setting out to answer whether a person was an employee or not. 

The directive was approved by a majority of 554 MEPs in favour, 56 against and 24 abstentions. Mr Cuffe said the law is "an important step in the fight against the scourge of bogus self-employment in Europe".

"The current business model places significant pressure on platform workers who must work much harder to make a living, with some people paid solely on the basis of deliveries made and not time worked. Under significant pressure, they are more likely to take risks like breaking red lights or using their phones, and are more likely to be involved in collisions as a result."

The law will ensure that a person performing platform work cannot be fired or dismissed based on a decision taken by an algorithm or an automated decision-making system. Instead, digital labour platforms must ensure human oversight on important decisions that directly affect the people performing platform work. It will also ban companies from accessing personal data on workers.

Mr Cuffe said he would have "preferred to go much further with this law".

We wanted to finally give a definitive answer on whether platform workers in Europe are employees or independent contractors. This proved impossible, however, due to heavy opposition from countries like France and Germany under pressure from corporate platforms and despite what was uncovered by major investigations like the Uber Files. 

"Now, Ireland must ensure that we implement the most ambitious version of this Directive possible, and finally give voice to people who simply ask for their basic rights as workers to be respected and upheld.” 

There are 28 million platform workers in Europe, according to European Commission estimates, and at least four million of those are considered to be misclassified as self-employed instead of employees. The misclassification of workers can allow platforms to evade labour, tax, and social security legislation that apply to employees.

It is estimated that 55% of platform workers earn less than the minimum wage, spend around 8.9 hours a week on unpaid work, and face higher health and security risks. The vast majority of platform companies (97%) do not pay any contributions towards unemployment benefits.