Is the platform work directive dead?

The EU’s Platform Workers Directive is on life-support and might be split in two after European governments voted down a provisional agreement found in December. “Better no deal than a bad deal,” sources told Euractiv.

The platform work file, first introduced in December 2021, was hailed as the EU’s first attempt to regulate the growing gig economy.

“We must make the most of the job-creating potential of digital platforms. But we should also make sure that they are quality jobs,” the EU Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit, said at the time.

Fast forward over two years and the state of play is a complete and utter negotiation stalemate. The European Parliament and the Council stand at two opposite extremes of the spectrum in their approach to the file.

Even inside the Council, there is a split between the more prescriptive and workers-protective approach of Spain and Belgium, and the more flexible approach of France and the Nordics, oriented toward collective agreements.

An upcoming EU ambassadors’ meeting on Friday (26 January), and a new round of interinstitutional negotiations – known as ‘trilogues’ – planned for Tuesday (30 January) offer no hope of any breakthrough.

Belgian presidency moves toward France in platform work rulebook rewrite

The Belgian presidency of the EU Council is edging closer to France’s demands in a new iteration of the Platform Workers Directive obtained by Euractiv, by bringing back critical provisions that are close to Paris’s heart.

Trying, failing

At the heart of the dossier lies a legal presumption of employment, which would harmonise ways through which self-employed platform workers could, if evidence was there to prove it, be reclassified as full-time employees.

The directive would also implement unprecedented rules on algorithmic management in the workplace.

But that is just too much for several member states, first and foremost France, who claims the directive in its general architecture encroaches on national labour law prerogatives and is so prescriptive that it lacks any flexibility in its application.

Last June, the Council of the EU agreed to increase the threshold past which a platform worker can trigger the legal presumption of employment, catering to reticent member states’ concerns.

Meanwhile, the Parliament did all it could to keep the presumption as easy and accessible as possible for workers to trigger – doing away with platforms’ worries that it could lead to automatic reclassification and turn their flexible business model upside down.

The Spanish presidency’s efforts to find common grounds led to a provisional agreement in mid-December – which was immediately rejected by member states.

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.

Resentment grows

“Everything is tricky with this file,” Green MEP Kim van Sparrentak told Euractiv. “We took so many steps towards the Council – but they make it so hard to find a solution”.

Negotiations are back to square one, and anger is palpable across political aisles in the Parliament.

“It’s catastrophic,” The Left lawmaker Leila Chaibi told Euractiv.

A vocal supporter of a more workers-protective directive, she agreed to pour water in her wine and accept the Spanish compromise. Still, new text drafts under the Belgian  presidency, circulated in the past couple of weeks, have left her flabbergasted.

“We believed in the Belgians, but they’ve really disappointed us.”

A parliamentary group adviser told Euractiv in confidence that “the Council might want to do their own little internal cuisine – but have they forgotten the Parliament must approve it too”.

As things stand, the Belgian proposal would be worse than the status quo, MEPs warn – a point picked up in an open letter published last week by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).

Even if EU ambassadors were to approve the Belgian text on Friday, a meeting of all Parliament negotiators on Wednesday (24 January) seems to have solidified opposition to it from across the aisle, including the liberals, the conservative right and the far right, though the declined to comment.

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.

France, France, France

To those who agreed to speak with Euractiv, the main point of contention is one particular country: France.

“We cannot agree to any kind of general exception for [Emmanuel] Macron, that’s unacceptable,” right-leaning EPP lawmaker Dennis Radtke told Euractiv.

France’s intense lobbying to limit the file’s prescriptiveness, with clear caveats for national authorities’ appreciation over the application of the legal presumption, has made lawmakers jump, even within the Council.

“France never wanted the directive in the first place,” van Sparrentak said. “We’re trying to make a system that protects the most vulnerable, and France is like: nah”.

Speaking under strict confidentiality, two diplomats from two EU countries told Euractiv that France was setting the tone of negotiations within the Council with exceptional leverage power as Germany, torn by domestic coalition infighting, has continuously abstained.

“Protecting persons performing platform work has always been and will continue to be a priority for France,” reads a French note dated 10 January. “[But] our ambition to improve the working conditions of persons performing platform work must not be achieved at the expense of genuine self-employed and their professional freedom and autonomy”.

A Belgian Presidency spokesperson confirmed to Euractiv that it was “a very delicate balance to strike”, though they remain focused on finding a deal before parliamentary affairs wrap up ahead of EU elections in June.

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”.

Splitting the file

Officials Euractiv talked to are not yet at the point of total despair.

“I’ll fight for this until the very last day of this mandate,” Radtke said.

But the middle ground remains far on the horizon. Euractiv received confirmation from several people involved in the negotiations that the Parliament is looking to split the directive in two so a deal can be struck on algorithmic management before EU elections.

It’s not clear whether this would fly with member states, however. It also remains to be seen how much of a fight the file’s rapporteur, social-democrat Elisabetta Gualmini, is willing to put up – with growing pressures to find a deal to show on the campaign trail.

Contacted by Euractiv, Gualmini’s office declined to comment.

Ultimately, the directive is not dead, all said. But one thing remains firmly in the mind of the policymakers involved: “Better no deal than a bad deal”.

[Edited by Luca Bertuzzi/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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