Ten days after an agreement between the European Commission, the Parliament and the Council of the European Union, which brings together the labor ministers of the 27 Member States, the latter finally decided, Friday December 22, not to vote on the directive which provided to strengthen the rights of independent platform workers (Uber, Deliveroo, etc.).
This text, discussed for two years, planned to introduce a presumption of employment for 28 million people concerned on the continent: if they wished, and on condition of completing two indicators out of five suggesting that they are under subordination from their platform, they could have obtained reclassification into an employment contract and employee status. According to estimates, these two criteria out of five concern around 5.5 million workers, mainly meal delivery workers. The text also provided that the labor inspectorate of each country could requalify other workers on a platform if one of them had been recognized as an employee.
Questioned on the subject this week in the Senate, the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, expressed his disagreement: “This directive is very different from the Council project adopted on June 12. When you go from three criteria out of seven to two criteria out of five, when you move towards a directive which would allow massive requalifications, including of workers who value their independent status, we cannot support it. » The minister highlighted the third path proposed by France, which consists of a social dialogue body reserved for these self-employed people.
The vote did not take place
This Friday morning, the committee of permanent representatives (Coreper) gave the floor to the ambassadors of the different countries, and around ten of them showed their disagreement, including Hungary, Italy… And France. “We said to ourselves that France could not position itself against it in terms of image, since the right-wing president of Parliament welcomed the agreement, and even the French Macronist MEPs supported itrecalls Leïla Chaibi, French MEP (left group in the European Parliament) and vice-president of the Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. Ultimately, our government and the lobbies supported Uber and company, and pressured the deal not to go through. »
In an interview with our colleagues atEURACTIVthe Italian base-democrat rapporteur of the project, Elisabetta Gualmini, indicated that Emmanuel Macron “risked being the killer of social Europe”by refusing to give basic social rights to these precarious workers.
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