After months of arduous negotiations, the much-debated and politically sensitive platform workers’ file was finally approved in plenary on Thursday (2 February), with 376 in favour and 212 against.
The text enshrines a legal presumption of employment for self-employed platform workers and reinforces workers’ rights and protection in the face of algorithmic management.
Minutes before the vote, centre-left lawmaker Elisabetta Gualmini, who spearheaded the work on the file, warned her peers not to believe the platforms’ narrative that the text “creates a general presumption of employment: it is not true, and it is impossible, both legally and technically”.
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She slammed platforms’ lobbying tactics, accusing them of “interfering with [the Parliament’s] democratic processes”. This comes amid allegations that platforms had ramped up their lobbying weeks before the vote.
According to several parliamentary sources EURACTIV talked to, platforms had been reaching out to indecisive EU lawmakers individually to encourage them to vote against the mandate.
The text brokered by Gualmini in the employment affairs committee (EMPL) did not receive unanimous support from the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP). Miriam Lexmann, of the EPP, was one of the most active MEPs trying to reopen the text to alternative compromise amendments.
Various stakeholders have different legal interpretations of the text, Lexmann said in plenary, “so it needs further considerations”.
The EU Parliament’s approval gives Gualmini the necessary mandate to enter interinstitutional negotiations, known as trilogues, alongside the European Commission and Council.
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.
What the text reads
MEPs in the leading EMPL committee adopted their position on 12 December – after months of arduous negotiations, which Gualmini had described as “extremely delicate and sensitive”.
Instead of a set of criteria that could motivate a legal presumption of employment, as established in the Commission’s proposal, the rapporteur shifted the focus to the actual contractual relationship between the platform and the worker.
As such, the criteria are no longer in the text guiding the presumption, instead now informing platforms’ rebuttal proceedings, when they think a worker is in fact ‘genuinely’ self-employed.
The complete removal of the criteria was harshly criticised by platforms like Uber and Deliveroo, which argued it would bring legal uncertainty and trigger mass reclassification of workers, leading to job losses.
A less political but still very significant part of the proposal regards the use of algorithms in the workplace. On this part, lawmakers included stronger transparency and information requirements regarding how these automated tools are used, and how they affect the employment relationship.
MEPs tighten platform worker protection in key committee vote
EU lawmakers voted in favour of a platform workers’ directive compromise text at the parliamentary committee on social affairs on Monday evening (12 December) – a crucial move after months of complex and divisive negotiations.
Centre-right conflicted
The conservative EPP, divided between the socially-minded aisle and a more liberal group of MEPs, was split on the file.
The EMPL committee is usually formed by MEPs more sensitive to social affairs, and the EPP shadow rapporteur on this file – the former unionist Dennis Radtke – was no exception. However, as policy discussions drew to a close late last year, Radtke was increasingly challenged by ‘hawks’ within his own parliamentary group, who accused him of cosying up with the left.
“Such a leftish approach is dangerous not only for the platforms but especially for genuinely self-employed workers,” an MEP told EURACTIV at the time.
In an internal email sent around to all MEPs and their assistants the day after the Committee vote, seen by EURACTIV, MEP Sara Skyttedal condemned a compromise text that, according to her, meant “tens of thousands of genuinely self-employed persons” would be at risk of becoming employed.
However, to make things harder for the opponents of the text, EMPL adopted a mandate to enter interinstitutional negotiations. This procedure is different from the usual one, as it means there would be no plenary vote unless a minimum of 71 MEPs object to the mandate.
Skyttedal thus coordinated the gathering of signatures and obtained 90 MEPs to subscribe to her cause.
Unfortunately, even with a plenary vote on Thursday, the text went through, frustrating Skyttedal’s expectations.
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.
A split house?
Mark McGann, a Uber former employee who became a whistleblower, publicly welcomed the vote as “a victory for those who reject the false premise that economic growth in the European Union requires allowing business to erode the hard-won social protections that are a feature of Europe’s labour market”.
However, Delivery Platforms Europe (DPE), a business association, said in a communiqué: “The Parliament’s report on platform work ignores the voice of millions of people who actively choose independent work.”
An industry representative told EURACTIV under the condition of anonymity that 212 votes against the mandate was no great success for Gualmini and spoke of a rather divided house, that might leave less room for manoeuvre during the trilogue negotiations.
According to roll-call transcripts, most EPP MEPs voted against the proposal. Renew was also evenly split, with French members all voting in favour, including Renew President Stéphane Séjourné, a U-turn compared to previous criticisms from Paris.
Negotiations continue at the EU Council of Ministers, where no general approach has yet to be found. A new meeting of the Working Party on Social Questions, a technical body that prepares the work for ministerial approval, is due to take place on 13 February.
EU Commissioner: Council should revert to platform workers' directive original text
Ministers failed to reach a deal last week over the platform workers’ directive, as concerns over the triggering of the legal presumption of employment and its derogations remain, Commissioner Nicolas Schmit told EURACTIV in an interview.
[Edited by Luca Bertuzzi/Nathalie Weatherald]
Source: euractiv.com
