Ahead of an initiative being prepared by the European Commission for 2021, the Ministers for Employment and Social Affairs of the Member States of the European Union will meet by videoconference on Thursday 3 December to discuss working conditions and social protection for digital platform workers, amongst other matters.
This will be the first subject for discussion on the day. The German Presidency will ask the ministers to share their views on the most effective way of responding to the challenges posed by the working conditions on digital platforms and on the role that the Union might play. The Presidency will aim to identify the most relevant and effective regulations in this area.
Preliminary legislative work has begun with a view to the European Commission presenting a directive to improve the protection of platform workers, which is scheduled for the final quarter of 2021.
On Monday 30 November, the European Parliament requested that the status of platform workers be defined at European level as a matter of urgency, but Nicolas Schmit, the Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights, has decided to postpone this task for the time being (see EUROPE 12613/33).
Gender equality
In the afternoon, the ministers will hold a second public debate on the 2020-2025 gender equality strategy, which was launched by the European Commission in March.
The aim of the strategy is to guarantee equality between women and men and girls and boys “in all their diversity”. The Presidency will therefore investigate how this diversity can be taken into account in European policies whose objective is equal treatment in relation to paid work and unpaid care work.
Ministers will also be briefed on the state of play of negotiations on the minimum wage initiative (see EUROPE 12600/28), the regulation on coordinating social security systems (see EUROPE 12606/22) and the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (see EUROPE 12410/35). The German Presidency will inform ministers about the outcomes of the Tripartite Social Summit that was held on 14 October 2020 (see EUROPE 12582/25).
The German Presidency documents can be found at: https://bit.ly/2KPoi0H (gender equality) and https://bit.ly/2JiTbdN (digital platforms) (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)