“The Council of the European Union [UE] and the European Parliament have just reached a provisional agreement on the platform workers directive », communicated the Belgian presidency of the council, Thursday February 8. She says she hopes this news is “a first step towards better protection of workers”. After two years of lively debates, one of the most important social issues of the European mandate has reached a happy conclusion for 28 million European self-employed workers (in particular, bicycle delivery men and VTC drivers for Uber, Deliveroo…)?
On the occasion of the eighth trilogue meeting since July 2023, between negotiators from Member States, the European Commission and the European Parliament, the aim was to find a new compromise, after several failures. The difficulty of the negotiation concerned the emergence of a legal presumption of employment: if they wish and if they are able to prove the link of subordination with the platform which employs them, the self-employed could obtain employee status, and thus obtain better rights (paid leave, compensated sick leave, unemployment). While MEPs had agreed, from the far left to the center right, on an unconditional presumption, the governments of the member states were more reluctant, and pleaded for the establishment of strict criteria to trigger the presumption .
The presumption was recognized, but in a “light version”. The new text removes the criteria, but is also not ” without condition “, since it refers the application of the presumption to the national law of each country. Local case law and law will thus decide the conditions to be met to trigger the automatic presumption of employment. It was Parliament that accepted this concession.
“It’s a lighter version, which doesn’t make the situation worse but doesn’t improve it enormously, reacts Leïla Chaibi, French MEP (left group in the European Parliament). The agreement says that member states must put in place a national framework for the presumption to be exercised, and that it will be up to the employer to prove that there is no relationship of subordination. » The agreement comes at the last minute, since it was the last opportunity to hope to get on track so that the text could be voted on before the end of the European mandate.
Previous agreement revoked
The stakeholders, however, are unanimous on another aspect of the text: it provides for supervision of the algorithmic management of these platforms, and better protection of workers’ personal data.
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