The Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU will ask for the opinion of the Member States’ ambassadors on the draft directive on the conditions of workers on digital platforms on 23 or 25 November.
The Czech Presidency’s objective remains to reach an agreement on the text on 8 December at the Employment and Social Affairs Council, but sources say that things are a bit more complicated than expected.
A meeting of the working group on Tuesday 15 November once again exposed areas of divergence on this text, as the last compromise version submitted by the Presidency did not obtain a majority, according to several interlocutors. Several countries still consider the text on the table to be “unacceptable” and are not ready to reach an agreement at any cost on 8 December. Each country is currently sticking to its position and the big unknown is the stance of Germany and Italy, two important countries that could tip the balance.
Eight countries had written to the Czech Presidency of the EU Council in October asking it to come back with a stronger proposal for platform workers’ rights after Prague decided to making it harder to trigger the legal presumption of employment by tightening the criteria required.
These countries include Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Luxembourg and Italy, which has since seen a change in government.
But the new compromise, dated 26 October, did not sufficiently address their concerns either, as the directive continues to “give platforms a free ride”, commented one source. The Czech Presidency is expected to circulate a new compromise proposal on 18 November ahead of the ambassadors’ meeting.
In the European Parliament, the aim remains to vote on the report by Elisabetta Gualmini (S&D, Italian) on 30 November, but several parameters still need to be determined, including the EPP group’s support for her protective proposals. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)