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.

For three long COVID years, delivery riders, bringing food to the comfort of your virus-free home, were at times the only ones out on the street.

The number of ‘platform workers’ exploded in 2020, leading the European Commission to step in and look into their contractual status – and crucially, whether that matches the work that they do. Are they genuinely self-employed, the Commission asked, or misclassified full-time employees?

The Commission estimates the number of platform workers will reach 43 million in 2025 across the EU, 5.5 million of whom may be victims of ‘bogus’ self-employment.

In December 2021, it proposed a draft directive and on Monday (12 June), a year and a half later, EU countries finally approved the text.

There were smiles, sighs of relief and giggles as ministers (and, most importantly, advisers) stepped out of the Council. “It wasn’t easy, but we made it,” said one.

Indeed, agreeing on a shared stance on the platform workers’ file was, as Commissioner Nicolas Schmit put it, “an important step”.

The key objectives of the directive are commendable: It wants to do away with ‘bogus’ self-employed platform workers – those who have self-employed contractual status but the subordination to a given platform is so evident that they ought to be reclassified as full-time employees.

To help bring some EU-wide clarity, the directive creates a legal presumption of employment. In essence, the directive lays out seven full-fledged presumption ‘criteria’, all of which hint at a worker-platform subordination link.

Under the Council text, if a worker meets three of these criteria, the presumption is ‘triggered’ and the contractual status shifts from self-employment to full-time employment, unless the platform can prove the particular worker is genuinely self-employed.

Yes but no

As the EU has no formal competence over employment policy, while all member states supported the principles of the Directive, a few felt understandably nervous. Paradoxically, Monday’s vote appears to have done more to crystallise tensions than bring EU countries together over a common objective.

You only had to listen to ministers’ statements made ahead of announcing their votes.

For some – take the Baltics and Eastern European states – the text is too restrictive and takes away workers’ freedom to contract with whoever seems most fit. Market liberalism is at the core of their argument: If a worker chooses to be self-employed, let them be.

In other words, don’t make the legal presumption an “administrative burden” on the ‘genuinely’ self-employed, Lithuania stressed, agreeing to vote in favour but expecting the directive as it reaches inter-institutional trilogues.

To the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain, the directive has been diluted in its effectiveness. The drafting of criteria to trigger the presumption of employment makes for too-narrow an interpretation, weakened further by newly-added derogations text.

All voted in favour – bar Spain, which abstained due to the country’s upcoming national elections.

But a joint statement published minutes after the vote said, in a nutshell: toughen up for the trilogues, we want more security for workers, and we’re not going down.

And then there’s France, a gig-economy UFO, which would do away with the presumption altogether if it could. Lately, the country has legislated in favour of a unique form of social dialogue.

It approved the text, though ultimately “France […] aims at preserving its existing national model,” Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt said, hinting that the directive text fell short of that, and there is a lot more work to do.

In hindsight, the outcome of the vote is bittersweet. The text was approved as a matter of
procedure but member states were clear that trilogues would lay bare the disagreements all over again. This is not the end of anything – it’s hardly the beginning.

The split is ideological, and essentially comes down to what makes politicians win elections: Can they provide work and keep unemployment at bay? To some, the answer is that any job’s better than none. To others, it’s about workers’ protections, and ensuring the state steps in effectively.

Making the two sides agree with each other will be, as Schmit put it in a perhaps-intended pun, “no easy ride”. And they won’t be gig-gling then.

The Roundup

• European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni delivers a Commission Statement on Make Europe the place to invest on Wednesday.
• European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit participates in the World of Work Summit: Social Justice For All, organised by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
• Vice President Margaritis Schinas on mission to Urkaine on Thursday.

Views are the author’s

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Nathalie Weatherald]