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”.

The Platform Work Directive, first introduced by the European Commission in December 2021, seeks to ensure workers of digital platforms such as Deliveroo and Uber have the correct contractual status based on their treatment and working conditions.

It also brings in new innovative provisions on algorithmic management in the workplace, to best protect platform workers’ digital rights when they are on and off-duty.

The file has faced considerable pushbacks and stalemates over the past two years, especially on the new legal presumption of employment, 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 to focus on the actual working conditions.

The provisional agreement, struck last week in interinstitutional negotiations – dubbed ‘trilogues’ – looks to find a delicate middle ground between these opposing views. Under the consolidated text, if two out of five criteria – now called ‘indicators’ – are met, relevant national authorities and judiciary bodies are entitled to trigger the presumption.

EU lawmakers nail down rules for platform workers

The representatives of the main EU institutions reached a provisional agreement over the Platform Workers Directive in the early hours of Wednesday (13 December) after almost two years of strenuous negotiations.

Member states concerned

But that’s no good for France and a number of other EU countries, for whom the compromise found in the political agreement is too far gone from the Council’s own version.

On Wednesday (20 December), France’s Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt announced he had instructed the Permanent Representation in Brussels to vote against the deal at the next meeting of ambassadors on Friday.

“The provisional agreement is very different from the Council mandate […] and I cannot support it,” Dussopt said.

According to information obtained by Euractiv, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania have all expressed concerns over the agreement, both on the presumption’s threshold mechanism and the detailed drafting of each criterion, which to them departs from Council and Commission wordings.

If all were to vote against the deal on Friday, they would form a blocking minority and the text would fall.

“[Emmanuel] Macron is one of the most passionate promoters of Europe. He has always fought for a stronger and more autonomous Europe,” the file’s rapporteur, Gualmini, told Euractiv.

But this time around, France’s nay-vote means Macron “risks being the killer of Social Europe,” she said. “This is completely unacceptable and not understandable to me.”

There were 28 million platform workers in the EU in 2022, with that number expected to rise to 43 million by 2025, according to Commission data. Up to 5.5 million of them may be at risk of contractual misclassification.

“I do not understand how France is not willing to give platform workers, who are one of the most precarious category of workers in the EU, basic social rights,” Gualmini explained.

She blames the general political narrative fostered by France and other critics of the provisional agreement, that the provisional text would foster a mass reclassification of workers. “It’s just not true,” the MEP deplored.

France, unlike other EU countries, is in favour of self-employment for platform work, with extra labour rights and enhanced ‘social dialogue’. On Wednesday, platforms and French workers’ representatives struck deals on riders’ minimum hourly income, a minimum kilometric income and an increase in minimum ride price.

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Unusual scenario

Gualmini added that she can’t help but see the influence of “lobbies and multinationals” in pushing member states away from the deal she herself engineered, alongside the Commission and the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU.

If the deal doesn’t get through on Friday – the last political hurdle before final adoption – then “lobbies will have won […]. The governments that will oppose [the text] are conditioned by the lobbies,” she told Euractiv, making the case that pressures from digital platforms were incredibly significant “each step of the way”.

As often is the case, the rotating Presidency of the EU seeks member states’ green light before going into trilogue negotiations. Due to the sensitive nature of the file however, and in the hope to strike a deal before year-end, Spain chose instead to find a deal first with the Commission and the Parliament, before going to member states for final vetting.

This unusual scenario explains why all eyes are on country ambassadors tomorrow – with high chances now that lawmakers may be sent back to the drawing board early next year.

If that happens, Gualmini says she’s ready to continue fighting: “We strongly believe that the two pillars of Social Europe [that are] Minimum Wage and Platform Work Directives have to be delivered for by the end of the mandate”.

This also means Gualmini will have something to show voters once EU elections get officially underway.

Ultimately, all will unfold in the next couple of days: “I absolutely hope that there will be a positive vote [on Friday],” the MEP said.

Bogus or genuine? The EU's plan for platform workers

In this video, we take a closer look at the European Commission’s draft directive on platform work, which aims to ensure platform workers have the contractual relationship that best encapsulates the work they actually do for platforms.

The directive also looks …

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]