Last week, following the failure of inter-institutional negotiations on the Platform Work Directive, the Belgian Presidency circulated yet another draft, significantly watering down key chapters of the file on legal presumptions of employment.
The Platform Work Directive, first proposed by the European Commission in December 2021, marks the first time the EU has attempted to regulate the gig economy, ensuring that platform workers benefit from contractual status that best suits the realities of their relationships with digital platforms. The purpose is to ensure that you receive the
This file has faced significant backlash over the past two years, particularly in the agreement to create a legal presumption of employment, a key mechanism that allows self-employed platform workers to be reclassified as full-time employees if proven. has faced an impasse in negotiations. There is a clear dependency between workers and platforms.
In recent developments, negotiations between the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council (better known as ‘tripartite negotiations’) reached an agreement in mid-December, but first the member states agreed to It was canceled immediately. Above all, France criticized the document because it departed significantly from the Council’s own position, particularly from legal presumptions.
Earlier this month, the Belgian Presidency, which took over the file, proposed a revised opinion closer to member states’ original position, ultimately making legal presumptions less likely to be triggered for self-employed platform workers who wish to be reclassified. .
This was summarily rejected by the Estates General of the European Parliament last Tuesday (30 January) in an unusual show of bipartisan unity.
There are no better standards
Instead, the Belgian side agreed to work on a new joint consideration document. This represents a “replacement instrument for legal presumptions that leaves member states more room for implementation,” the president agreed in a Feb. 3 memo. Seen and read by Euractiv.
Although the chapter on algorithmic management in the workplace remains, the memorandum, which includes brand new text, effectively watered down the detailed features of the legal presumption, under the terms agreed in the interim agreement in December, and last week corroborates the information collected.
It deleted the criterion entirely and added instead reference to “controlling and directional facts, in accordance with national law, collective agreements, the practice in force in the Member States, and taking into account the case law of the Court of Justice.”
This is a significant change from previous versions and the Commission’s original proposal, which included a detailed list of criteria to indicate whether a dependency exists between a platform and a worker.
Therefore, “there are no harmonized conditions for triggering the presumption in the text of the Directive,” the note says, leaving it solely to Member States to decide how to act. There is.
However, the revised text compels all Member States to create rebuttable legal presumptions in their national systems. This mechanism should make it easier for platform workers to prove the actual contractual relationship and should not make the process more cumbersome.
The Member States’ Technical Advisory Council will meet on Monday (5 February) to consider the details of the new draft ahead of a vote by all EU ambassadors on the revised text on Wednesday 7 February.
If all goes to plan and member states approve the plan, tripartite talks are scheduled for Thursday (8 February) and, if an agreement is reached then, a final (February 9)
[Edited by Alice Taylor]
