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.

Following last month’s member states rejection of the provisional agreement with the European Parliament, France is refusing to use the new text as a starting point for future negotiations, warning that the legal presumption as currently formulated could apply to all platforms automatically, according to a document seen by Euractiv.

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.

A provisional agreement had been found in interinstitutional negotiations between the EU Commission, Council and Parliament – known as ‘trilogues’ – in mid-December, dubbed “historic” by the EU Parliament rapporteur, centre-left MEP Elisabetta Gualmini.

However, several member states, like France, opposed the agreement, considering the Spanish presidency to have overstepped its mandate in the negotiations. As there was not a qualified majority to get the text through the Council, no vote was held, and negotiators are now back to the drawing board.

Since then, the Belgian presidency of the Council of the EU, which took over from the Spaniards on 1 January, has committed to getting a deal done before the European Parliament is dissolved ahead of the elections in June.

In a note to delegations, dated 10 January and seen by Euractiv, Belgium acknowledges that time is of the essence, such that the provisional text, “although as such not acceptable to a majority of Member States, needs to serve as basis for further negotiation”.

The presidency’s document also asks delegations to share their thoughts on six key sticking points, including criteria/indicators for triggering the legal presumption, derogations, discretion by national authorities in case of incorrect classification, effects of reclassification decisions, consequences of non-rebuttal or unsuccessful rebuttal, and the overly prescriptive character of supporting measures.

Such inputs will in turn inform “a [new] proposal for a revised mandate to Coreper”, the Committee of Permanent Representatives that gathers EU ambassadors.

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.

Back to the general approach

However, the Belgian approach is not to France’s taste in any shape or form. While the rotating presidency entails behaving as an honest broker, both Spain and Belgium have been pushing for a more protective approach towards workers.

By contrast, France has led a coalition of countries that asked for a more liberal and flexible approach. Paris always fought against what it described to be an overly prescriptive text, running counter to its own national model, which looks to enshrine self-employment with advanced labour protections.

In a document titled ‘FR comments on the provisional agreement rejected at Coreper of 22 December 2023’, dated 10 January and seen by Euractiv, Paris makes clear it is against using the provisional agreement as a starting point for future negotiations.

“The provisional agreement has not been approved by the Council, therefore it should not be used as a basis to restart negotiations under the Belgian presidency,” the document reads.

Instead, the French government wants to “restart discussions on a working version as close as possible to the general approach adopted by the Council, under the Swedish Presidency, in June 2023″.

The general approach, in a nutshell, limits the scope of the legal presumption of employment, a mechanism through which self-employed platform workers could be reclassified as full-time employees based on their working relationship with digital platforms, relative to both Commission and Parliament texts.

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 to focus on the actual working conditions.

Macron may be ‘killer of Social Europe’, Platform Work Directive rapporteur warns

Member states must do everything to ensure the Platform Work Directive provisional deal is approved, Parliament file rapporteur Elisabetta Gualmini told Euractiv in an interview, warning that France’s refusal to vote on the text is “unacceptable”.

Criteria substance and application

The 2-out-of-5 split was eventually secured in the provisional agreement.

The French actively reject this. “The threshold of 2/5 for triggering the presumption does not seem to French authorities to constitute an element of security enabling genuine self-employed to remain self-employed,” the document reads.

It also criticises the very wording of each criterion as set out in the provisional agreement – a Parliament ask – as deemed to be so broad some would “be likely to be systematically met”, to the detriment of platform work who actively want and choose to remain self-employed.

As a result, according to France, “all platforms, whatever their sector of activity or operating model, would be affected by the application of the legal presumption. The presumption would therefore apply automatically to all platforms.”

Finally, Paris insists platform workers wanting to trigger the presumption should provide “a minimum amount of evidence to allow the assessment of their individual situation.”

The Brief — Short-lived gig-gles?

EU labour ministers celebrated finding a common position on the politically sensitive platform workers file this week, after months of a complete freeze in negotiations. But refrain from the warm congratulatory words just yet: The EU is more split over gig economy regulation than you might think.

Procedural concerns

The document also highlights several provisions France says it wants gone from the text, arguing the provisional agreement is far too influenced by the Parliament’s take against the Council’s interests.

In particular, France takes aim at the role national competent authorities are expected to play in bringing evidence and triggering the legal presumption, as it fails to take into account the national administrative and legal realities, such as France’s, “in which only the judiciary may reclassify a person as a worker”.

Moreover, the obligation to inform authorities responsible for reclassification of a case of potentially wrongly classified workers would impose a considerable burden, France argues.

Finally, the French also want to kill the provision that would see labour inspectorates be required to provide complainants assistance on the grounds that administrations cannot assist a party in French courts.

“An insufficient consideration of these [national] systems would represent a clear red line for France,” the note says.

[Edited by Luca Bertuzzi/Nathalie Weatherald]

Read more with Euractiv

AI Convention's crunch time, Microsoft-OpenAI scrutiny

Welcome to Euractiv’s Tech Brief, your weekly update on all things digital in the EU. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.