Uber, Deliveroo, Bolt… What the directive on digital platform workers adopted by the Council of the EU will change

The rules on which the Twenty-Seven agreed are less ambitious than the European Commission’s proposal, but will create a presumption of employment for workers.

A political agreement was reached on Monday March 11 by the countries of the European Union (EU) on a directive aimed at strengthening the rights of digital platform workers. The EU Council negotiations were difficult and the final text is far from that proposed by the European Commission in 2021.

The provisions concern “28 million” workers who operate most of the time under the status of self-employed, such as VTC drivers or meal delivery people, specifies a press release from the Council. A status denounced byhe European trade union organizations, which defend a requalification of workers as well as employees.

The agreement was reached without the support of France, opposed to the project, and Germany, where the ruling coalition is divided on the issue. The directive still needs to be formally adopted by the Council and voted on by the European Parliament. Member States will then have two years to integrate it into their law. But what will it actually change?

Each State will define the contours of the presumption of employment

The Twenty-Seven agreed on the implementation of the principle of presumption of employment for platform workers. The European Commission’s initial proposal aimed to establish a list of criteria common to the entire EU, clearly defining the links of subordination between a platform and its workers, recalls Euractiv. But the version adopted by European employment ministers has partly been emptied of its substance.

The final text leaves a lot of room for maneuver to European states. The latter will be responsible for establishing “a presumption of employment in their legal systems” who will be “triggered when control and direction facts [des travailleurs] are established”, specifies the press release. The definition of these “facts” will be established by the States, in accordance with their “national law and collective agreements”. Each government will therefore decide on the criteria used. As an example, in its initial project, the European Commission cited in particular “the limitation of the freedom to organize one’s work” And “control of the distribution or allocation of tasks”.

The agreement does not mean that all delivery people and drivers of the platforms will automatically switch to employee status. However, it provides that platform workers can challenge their status, to “access more easily the rights they enjoy under Union law as employees”, specifies the Commission. “We have reversed the burden of proof, vs“it gives a nuclear weapon to workers to initiate a labor tribunal procedure to reclassify their statuses”, reacted Brahim Ben Ali, general secretary of the National VTC Intersyndicale and Uber driver with France 3 Hauts-de-France.

Regulation of algorithms used by platforms

“It will be up to the platforms to prove that [les travailleurs] are not employees”explains the European Trade Union Confederation in a press release, which welcomed a “victory”believing that “the end of false self-employment is within reach”. The lobby for on-demand mobility companies, Move EU, which counts Uber among its members, has for its part expressed its dissatisfaction. “It does not allow for a harmonized approach across the EU, which creates even more legal uncertainty,” declared the president of the organization, Aurélien Pozzana, quoted by AFP.

The agreement also includes a chapter aimed at regulating the algorithmic management of work by digital platforms. These tools allow “ofautomate certain aspects of worker coordination, for example in terms of task distribution and performance monitoring”, explains the site The world of computing. With the new rules, the use of certain data, including psychological state, religion, sexuality and private conversations of workers will be prohibited.

The agreement also specifies that decisions influenced or taken directly by an algorithm on the subjects of remuneration, account suspension or work ban must be supervised by a person, underlines Euractiv.