As the European elections, scheduled for June 9, approach, the different political camps are starting to sharpen their arguments. It was this exercise that MEP (S&D, Place publique) Raphaël Glucksmann, who would like to lead the socialist list in France, undertook on Sunday June 14, through several media.
Among other things, he accused, in an interview with Worldthe Elysée to have “blocked the directive on platform workers which would give rights to millions of workers exploited by Uber and others”. Before asserting on France Inter that“Emmanuel Macron shows himself to be pro-European until powerful private interests are offended.”
Understand: under pressure from Uber and other Deliveroo, the Elysée is preventing social progress for this part of the digital economy that the text, presented by the European Commission in December 2021 and under negotiation, since then, between the European Parliament and the Twenty-Seven.
In fact, on December 22, 2023, during a meeting of the ambassadors of the Member States to the European Union (EU), Paris made known its opposition to the compromise reached, nine days earlier, by the elected officials of Strasbourg and the presidency of the Council of the EU – then occupied by Spain –, supposed to represent the capitals.
Around ten other countries were on the French line, including Poland and Hungary – keen to maintain the comparative advantage that less restrictive social legislation gives them – but also Greece, the Baltic countries – notably Estonia, who wants to protect its champion, Bolt – or even the Scandinavians, attached to their collective bargaining model.
“European social model”
Faced with the explosion of platforms, in meal delivery or in the mobility sector, Europeans wanted to both harmonize and improve the working conditions of a poorly regulated sector which today employs 28 million people. people – in 2025, there should be 43 million – and makes them work, in 90% of cases, with independent status.
In this context, the Commission proposed, in 2021, that the self-employed, who keep the platforms alive, be granted the status of employees, as long as the relationship which attaches them to their employer places them in a position of subordination. . It listed a list of criteria which should make it possible to define the conditions in which a platform “is presumed to be an employer and its workers are presumed to be employees”.
You have 65% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.