On Wednesday 14 July, MEPs on the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) adopted (44 votes to 2, 8 abstentions) an own-initiative report by Sylvie Brunet (Renew Europe, France), which expressly asks the European Commission to present a legislative initiative to regulate digital platform workers at European level.
The reversal of the burden of proof is the European Parliament’s emblematic demand. In the event of a dispute between a worker and a digital platform, it would then be up to the platform to prove the worker’s self-employed status, Brunet explained.
Parliamentarians also introduce the notion of a rebuttable presumption, or simple presumption, of an employment relationship for platform workers. This means that there is no automaticity in the recognition of the employment relationship.
‘I can tell you that this point made us sweat”, said the rapporteur, noting that most of the political debate was about the status of platform workers. As such, MEPs reject the creation of a third status to classify platform workers between employee and self-employed status.
Similarly, the definition of a platform was also debated among the rapporteurs between those who wanted to define platforms as employers and those who would like a more flexible approach, depending on the case.
MEPs also want to ensure that exclusivity clauses are banned and that all platform workers are allowed to work for different platforms (multi-application) and are not treated unfavourably for this reason.
The other issue that was debated was that of intellectual property and trade secret protection related to algorithms. “Some people wanted a co-management model (between platform and workers), but these algorithms are the DNA of these platforms”, Mrs Brunet recalled, welcoming the fact that the political majority had rejected this approach. The MEP stressed the importance of informing and engaging with workers on how the algorithm works and how it affects their work.
MEPs supported the idea of creating a European quality label for platforms that implement good practices in terms of working conditions and transparency or respect for social dialogue.
This point was also debated because, for some MEPs, particularly on the left of the Chamber, such a label could introduce tolerance between “virtuous” and less virtuous platforms, whereas the rules and protections for workers should be the same for all.
The plenary vote is expected to take place in September. Mrs Brunet hoped that the balanced approach supported by the EMPL Committee would receive strong support in this vote. At the same time, the results of the second phase of consultation of the social partners on the issue of digital platforms should be known, following which the European Commission should take a position and present a legislative initiative at the end of the year or early in 2022. Mrs Brunet said that she hoped to get the report back for the legislative text. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)