The majority of MEPs in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) were opposed to the creation of a third status for platform workers on Thursday 4 March, during a first debate on the draft report by Sylvie Brunet (Renew Europe, France).
Ms Brunet outlined the main issues she wished to address: - improve working conditions and the communication of information to workers; - end the exclusivity clauses between platforms with the possibility of recourse in the event of deactivation of an account; - improving health and safety at work by ensuring that all workers have health insurance and are covered in the event of accidents; - extend social protection to all platform workers, whether salaried or not; - improve the employability of workers (e.g. by devising a personal experience account); - finally, to make the algorithmic management often used on these platforms more transparent.
The principles of non-discrimination and respect for private data must be applied, the rapporteur insisted.
In a first round of discussions, the shadow rapporteurs of the EPP, S&D, Greens/EFA and The Left groups rejected the proposal for a third status for platform workers, which would fall between employee and self-employed status, as currently proposed by Uber.
Admittedly, Mrs Brunet does not take a stand in her report for the creation of such a status, but she does not seem to exclude it clearly either, we are told.
Most speakers stressed the difficulty of grasping the full complexity of the phenomenon in a single report. According to them, a single response to the great diversity of platforms is not appropriate.
Presumption of salaried employment. Kim van Sparrentak (Greens/EFA, Netherlands) and Leïla Chaibi (The Left, France) highlighted the principle of presumption of salaried employment, whereby any platform worker would be considered an employee from the outset. It would then be up to the platform to prove its self-employed status.
Ms Chaïbi insisted that the platforms’ algorithms should not only be transparent, but also co-managed with the workers.
On behalf of the ECR group, Anna Zalewska from Poland insisted on the respect of the sharing of competences. She favoured the development of recommendations rather than a directive. As for Dominique Bilde (Identity and Democracy, France), she felt that European action came too late and that the hand should be left to the Member States.
The European Commission launched a consultation with the social partners at the end of February with a view to presenting a possible legislative initiative (see EUROPE 12665/15).
To consult the draft report: https://bit.ly/3bXzSAI
To review the exchange: http://bit.ly/3sStEJw (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)