Minimum wage, social protection, retirement … The European Commission presents, Thursday, November 9, a proposal for an unprecedented directive aimed at putting an end to the fraudulent use of the status of self-employed or self-employed by workers on digital platforms such as Uber, Deliveroo or Bolt.
Brussels intends to reverse the burden of proof for these workers, by establishing a “presumption of employment”. Clearly, it will now be up to companies to prove that these workers cannot be considered as employees. This directive, which will then have to be amended and validated by the Parliament and the Council of the EU, would affect up to 4 million people in the Union. Explanations.
1How is the “presumption of wage employment” defined?
The European Commission has listed five criteria to define whether the worker can be considered as an employee or not. If he fulfills two, his contract must be requalified. Among these, “the link of subordination with the platform – that is to say the power for the company to sanction or supervise the worker – the impossibility for the worker to freely set his rates, to accept or refuse certain tasks”, list the MEP Leïla Chaibi (left group GUE / NGL) to franceinfo. The other criteria are the inability of workers to design their own customer address book and the obligation to adhere to certain rules of conduct.
“Brussels started from the observation that many workers are bogus self-employed workers since they meet many of these criteria, without the counterparts in terms of social protection”, explains Sylvie Brunet, MEP (Renew), member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and author of a report on platform workers.
“These workers are being used as ‘modern day slaves’ without the level of protection and rights they should have.”
Sylvie Brunet, MEP (Renew)to franceinfo
The European Commission also intends to improve the protection of workers vis-à-vis the algorithms that govern their work. “Today, workers have no control over the way they are graded, monitored, despite the consequences this may have on their health or safety”, explains Sylvie Brunet. Brussels intends to allow them to re-examine decisions of the platform, by creating new instances of social dialogue and the possibility of collective representation.
2What will happen in the event of a dispute between a platform and a worker?
Today, if a meal delivery man is injured during his work, he must prove in court that he is not independent in order to be able to benefit from compensation from the company. “With this directive, the proof of the burden will be reversed. It will be up to the platform to prove that the worker is truly independent”, continues Sylvie Brunet. If the judge considers that the worker meets two of the five criteria established by the European Commission, he must be reclassified as an employee.
However, before it enters into force (probably in the second half of 2022), the directive will certainly be amended by Parliament and Council. And the platforms already intend to express their disagreement in Brussels.
Whatever the final text, the Commission wants above all to create “legal certainty” to allow the national authorities to define a more correct status for workers and to encourage more checks and inspections on the ground.
3What would be the cost of this measure?
According to the draft directive consulted by Bloomberg (in English), the measure could cost platforms up to 4.5 billion euros per year. In total, 3.8 million workers could be reclassified as employees. For customers, this directive could result in an increase in the price of shopping. According to Eurostat, this increase would be 24.5%. For the member states, this would represent 4 billion euros in revenue, in taxes and social contributions.
On the announcement of this directive, the shares of Britain’s Deliveroo fell 5.6% and those of the German Delivery Hero SE fell 2.7% at the start of the session on December 3. “This is not only bad news for the platforms, but also for the workers of these (…) who wish to remain independent”, assure La Croix (article reserved for subscribers) Aurélien Pozzana, lobbyist for Bolt.
In Spain, where meal deliverers have benefited from the “presumption of wage employment” since March, the platforms have responded to this new legislation in several ways. Deliveroo notably announced that it was leaving the Spanish market during the summer and Uber Eats has chosen to outsource this wage earner by hiring delivery people through intermediary companies from the logistics sector.