Belgian presidency gives platform workers rulebook new try

The Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU has circulated a new draft text of the platform work directive, which should be the basis for technical negotiations among member states on Tuesday (16 January), amid persistent divisions about the directive’s scope.

The draft text, dated 10 January and seen by Euractiv, almost perfectly matches the provisional agreement found in interinstitutional negotiations – known as ‘trilogues’ – on 13 December.

On 22 December, however, the very same agreement was knocked down by a majority of member states, who considered that the Spanish Council presidency had overstepped its mandate in the negotiations.

The platform work directive seeks to ensure workers of digital platforms such as Deliveroo and Uber have the correct contractual status based on their treatment and working conditions. The legislation also sets new ambitious provisions on algorithmic management in the workplace.

In a cover note attached to the new text, the Belgian presidency says it is committed to striking a deal before legislative work ends and EU election campaigning begins.

Since time is of the essence, the provisional agreement, “although as such not acceptable to a majority of member states, needs to serve as basis for further negotiation”.

Belgium has asked member states to comment on this new iteration of the text with a view to informing “a [new] proposal for a revised mandate to Coreper”, the Committee of Permanent Representatives that gathers EU ambassadors, the cover note reads.

France, in a note seen by Euractiv, has already warned it could not agree to use the trilogue’s provisional agreement as a starting point and has called on the Belgian presidency to stick as close as possible to the Council’s mandate.

While the country holding the rotating presidency of the Council should play the role of the honest broker, both Belgium and Spain have been pushing for a more prescriptive approach with stronger protection for workers.

By contrast, France, the Nordics, and Central Eastern European Countries have been pushing for a more flexible approach that would pose less requirements on platforms.

Member states deal heavy blow to platform work deal

Member states’ ambassadors failed to find a majority over a platform work directive deal struck last week, dealing a heavy blow to the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU and raising concerns the file may not get through before the end of the mandate.

Legal presumption criteria

The new text hones in on the legal presumption of employment, the directive’s flagship mechanism through which self-employed platform workers could be reclassified as full-time employees based on their working relationship with digital platforms.

The Commission’s initial proposal stipulated that the presumption could be triggered if two out of five criteria which hint at subordination were met. The Council increased the threshold to three criteria out of seven, while the Parliament’s original stance was to remove the criteria altogether and focus on the actual working conditions.

In the end, the provisional agreement settled on a 2/5 split – but the most reticent countries complained that the wording of each criterion was so broad it could almost systematically be met.

To address such concerns, fresh wording has been added.

The first two criteria remain unchanged from the Spanish deal and focus on remuneration determination and work performance supervision.

The next three, however, focus specifically on whether a digital labour platform “restricts the freedom” to organise one’s work through accepting or refusing tasks, imposing working hours, and affecting workers’ discretion to use subcontractors if they so wish – somewhat reducing the scope of the presumption altogether compared to the December deal.

“The indicators [i.e. criteria] should also comprise concrete elements showing that the digital labour platform closely supervises the performance of work, also by thoroughly verifying the quality of the results of the work of persons performing platform work,” the recitals read.

However, “the criteria should not cover situations where the persons performing platform work are genuine self-employed”.

This comes amid France’s, and several other member states, concerns that the directive as it stands runs the risk of leading to a blanket reclassification and failing to protect the ‘genuinely’ self-employed.

France leads charge to rewrite platform workers' rulebook

Last month, a coalition of EU countries blocked the provisional agreement on the Platform Workers Directive. But while the Belgian EU Council presidency wants to use the political deal as the starting point for future discussion, Paris wants a more comprehensive file reshaping.

[Edited by Luca Bertuzzi/Zoran Radosavljevic]

Read more with Euractiv

French quantum sector calls for more EU funding

The EU should support more funding initiatives targeted to deep tech and quantum technologies, according to founders and strategists working within the quantum field in France.