Balanced deal on platform workers rules reached, leading MEP says

The European Parliament reached a deal on the platform workers’ directive, pending confirmation by the Employment and Social Affairs Committee on 12 December.

The deal is the outcome of months of lengthy negotiations on the platform workers’ directive, which seeks for the most part to clarify platform workers’ employment status.

“There is a deal, and I am very happy about it,” Elisabetta Gualmini, the left-wing lawmaker spearheading the directive, told EURACTIV.

Finding a deal on such a complex and politicised file required Gualmini to walk a fine line, as the divide among MEPs was stark, with debates carried out on more on lines of national culture than political affiliation.

The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) had its own internal split between shadow rapporteur Dennis Radtke and the more liberal aisle of the group – a major destabilising factor in the political discussions.

“These were very difficult negotiations”, Gualmini explained. She made the conscious choice, as negotiations were underway between May and December of this year, to stay out of the media light and focus on those “extremely delicate and sensitive” talks.

Centre right divergences continue on platform workers directive

The centre-right’s internal disagreements over a working compromise on the platform workers directive were laid bare at an event on Wednesday (19 October), where a former Uber driver interrupted the event to criticise the platforms’ lobbying methods.

The ‘false political narrative’ of the presumption of employment

The most critical aspect of the directive is the introduction of a legal presumption of employment, meaning platform workers would be deemed employees if they met a certain number of criteria as spelled out in the initial proposal.

Gualmini’s approach, which is enshrined in the compromise, went even further with the complete removal of the list of criteria that would inform and motivate the triggering of the presumption.

Instead, MEPs agreed to let workers, trade unions and national authorities trigger the presumption with no conditions if they deemed it fair, while the onus would be on digital platforms to rebut the presumption and prove that a worker presumed employee is “genuinely self-employed”, the text reads.

As such, a new list of criteria was created from scratch, but merely to guide rebuttal proceedings.

“Lobbyists and some MEPs promoted the false political narrative that our proposal would lead to the automatic mass reclassification of workers,” Gualmini said, adding that this was never the intention.

Instead, she aimed to “correct the eventual misclassification of workers and avoid unfair competition”. The European Commission estimates that up to 5.5 million platform workers could be at risk of employment status misclassification.

For Gualmini, the extensive pushback against her proposal was due to the huge economic interests that the directive is targeted at. Gig economy platforms facing workers being classified as full-time employees could amount to an existential threat to their business model.

“I have never seen such efforts to condition and influence the activity of decision-makers,” she said, adding that that did not prevent MEPs to reach a “very balanced deal”.

Leading MEP pushes for tight employment protection in platform workers directive

Centre-left lawmaker Elisabetta Gualmini has significantly expanded provisions for platform workers to ask for employee status and the human review of algorithm management in her draft report.

Concessions made

“Everyone gave up something and got something,” Gualmini said.

The more liberal MEPs, who always said they wanted spelt-out criteria to motivate the legal presumption, had to give in and accept there would be none.

The “progressive alliance”, as Gualmini dubbed it, which includes left-to-centre MEPs, was also constrained to include many more references to member states’ competence to the list of criteria that inform presumption rebuttal proceedings.

“These criteria have become non-mandatory,” Gualmini said.

A source very close to the file, speaking to EURACTIV, phrased it a little less diplomatically to EURACTIV: “It’s all about member states, member states and member states.”

Finally, Gualmini acknowledges she had to give in on broadening the directive’s scope, which she wanted to extend to all workers touched by algorithmic management but remained as per the original proposal.

Uber Files whistleblower wants ambitious EU law for the 'powerless'

Uber Files whistleblower took centre stage and slammed Uber’s “disproportionate” power over EU policy-making at a European Parliament hearing. The European social agenda is a “threat” to Uber, and one the company aims to take down, he added.

‘Revolutionary’ algorithmic management

The second part of the directive touches on algorithmic management, used by many platforms to “assign tasks, to monitor, evaluate and take decisions for the people working through them”, the Commission’s explanatory note reads.

For Gualmini, it is not workers’ classification but algorithmic management that is the most crucial part of the directive. It will be “revolutionary for the future of the labour market”, she said.

The deal includes human oversight for all algorithmic decisions that “significantly affect working conditions”, while it promotes collective bargaining across the board for platform work, she said.

New provisions included in the European Parliament’s latest compromise amendments – that do not reflect the final deal, however – also hone in on the transparency of automated and decision-making systems through accessible and understandable information-sharing.

Eight EU countries push back against stricter conditions for platform workers' status

In a letter to the EU Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit, nine European ministers have called for “an effective and strong, but rebuttable, legal presumption” as part of negotiations on the platform workers directive.

What’s next

The details of the political agreement in the European Parliament are still not defined, and are subject to confirmation first at the committee level on 12 December, followed by plenary adoption early next year.

The plenary vote might be particularly risky for the deal, as the members of the employment committee are generally considered more oriented toward worker protection than the rest of the EU lawmakers.

In the EU Council, the file moved in a completely different direction to that of the Parliament. However, the Czech presidency has so far failed to gather enough support for its text thanks to a blocking minority of countries and Germany’s hesitancy.

“The proposal of the Czech presidency is totally unacceptable for us, below the Commission’s initial proposal,” Gualmini said, voicing concerns that the upcoming Swedish presidency might bring down the level of worker protection even further.

Czech presidency makes new attempt on platform workers directive

The Czech presidency’s latest compromise text on the platform workers’ directive made some additional tweaks in the hope of securing a majority at a new meeting with EU ambassadors on Wednesday (30 November).

[Edited by Luca Bertuzzi/Nathalie Weatherald]