EU countries nail down common position on platform workers directive

EU labour ministers endorsed a general approach to the Platform Workers Directive on Monday (12 June), marking the close of a year and a half’s worth of intense negotiations and opening the door to interinstitutional negotiations with the Commission and the European Parliament.

The legislative proposal is meant to clarify working conditions for the gig economy, regulating the likes of Deliveroo and Uber.

At the core of the controversy that spanned over three successive EU Council presidencies – held by France, Czechia, and Sweden – was a newly-created legal presumption of employment that is set to reclassify the ‘bogus’ self-employed, under certain conditions.

In total, 22 member states approved the general approach text at the Employment and Social Affairs Council (EPSCO) in Luxembourg. Only five – Estonia, Germany, Grece, Latvia, and Spain – abstained. There were no votes against it.

In a joint statement, countries that had wanted stronger safeguards for workers, including Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain, agreed not to stand in the way, “with the aim of keeping the legislative process on track” and agreeing on a final EU-wide text before the 2024 elections.

Sweden gives platform work directive final push in hope of EU Council deal

A meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday (31 May) will look into a new compromise text on the platform work directive, seen by EURACTIV, in the hope of building a bridge between two starkly divided camps and bringing member states together ahead of a ministerial meeting in mid-June.

A long way there

The ministerial approval, however, was not a given. A series of compromise texts circulated by the Swedes between January and May had failed to reach any form of agreement at technical and ambassadors levels.

Different camps had formed: Some member states, like Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands, had called for a more ambitious text with a powerful legal presumption at its core. They were concerned that the Swedish text did not share the same level of ambition.

On the other hand, France, a critical player in ensuring a qualified majority, given Spain and Germany’s abstentions, wanted to see clearer derogations to the presumption added in the operative part of the text.

That was a casus belli for the ‘pro-presumption’ group, who claimed this would water down the presumption altogether.

The Swedes have had to tread a fine line, including reassurances to the French-led camp that derogations would apply while giving the more ambitious countries a bone to chew on. As a result, the final text clarifies that countries with more favourable legal mechanisms than what the Directive provides could continue relying on such mechanisms.

French Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt, who approved the text, made clear that more work was needed to ‘guarantee’ that the presumption would not apply to the ‘genuinely’ self-employed and ensure decent derogation text for platforms that follow national rules.

In the end, Monday’s ministerial approval generally speaks to member states’ willingness to move forward with negotiations and start brand-new talks with the European Parliament and the Commission as part of interinstitutional ‘trilogues’, as the EU jargon calls it.

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 Luca Bertuzzi/Zoran Radosavljevic]

Read more with Euractiv

EU gives green light - with caveats - to French publisher takeover

The European Commission approved French multimedia conglomerate Vivendi's acquisition of publisher Lagardère, with some conditions to prevent market concentration.