The law strengthening the rights of digital platform workers definitively adopted by the European Union

The 27 member countries of the European Union definitively approved legislation on Monday October 14 to strengthen the rights of workers on digital platforms such as Uber or Deliveroo. The text plans to reclassify as employees many people currently working under self-employed status as vehicle drivers or delivery men. However, the terms of these requalifications remain unclear and dependent on national regulations even though the text was supposed to establish a harmonized European framework.

The directive will now be able to enter into force after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU. Member states will have two years to incorporate it into their national legislation, the EU Council explained. The text was validated by a very large majority by the European Parliament at the end of April, after a political agreement obtained painfully at the beginning of March between negotiators from the Member States and the Parliament, against a backdrop of intense lobbying from the companies concerned.

The European Commission estimates that “at least 5.5 million”out of a total of nearly 30 million, the number of platform workers wrongly registered as independent and therefore unfairly deprived of the social benefits of employment. A “legal presumption” of employment will have to be introduced in each of the 27 legal systems of the member countries.

It will be triggered when facts demonstrate a “control” workers by the company. But these facts will be established “according to national law and national collective agreements, having regard to EU case law”. The text will still allow platform workers to challenge their status by invoking this “presumption” and the burden of proof will fall on employers.