As negotiators from the European Parliament and the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU began talks on Tuesday 11 July on the directive on digital platform workers, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) is seeking to bring its influence to bear on the debate, noting that their initial differences on the principle of the presumption of employee status (see EUROPE 13199/1) are considerable. The rapporteur on the subject, the Deputy Mayor of Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Belgium, Yonnec Polet (PES), tells EUROPE about the views of the Committee of the Regions and his hope that the negotiations will at least succeed in adhering to the Commission’s initial directive, presented at the end of 2021. (Interview by Solenn Paulic)
Agence Europe - Your opinion on platform work was adopted in mid-2022. Since then, the European Parliament and the EU Council have adopted their mandates. And you seem to be closer to the Parliament’s position.
Yonnec Polet - The rapporteur (Elisabetta Gualmini, S&D, Italian) has placed the criteria for triggering the presumption of employee status in the recitals, making employee status automatic, which is one good thing.
From our side, we reduced the number of criteria required to trigger the presumption to one (out of the 5 proposed by the Commission, editor’s note). The EU Council opted for 3 out of 7 criteria.
Our opinion was adopted in a very consensual atmosphere, unlike the European Parliament where there was intense lobbying, because we all have local experience of the difficulties encountered by these workers.
The Commission’s proposal comes at a key moment, as we are heading for an exponential rise in the number of these workers, from 28 million today to 43 million in 2025. And what is very important for me is that we avoid the trap of the ‘third way’, where we create a status between that of employee and that of self-employed, as some Member States, particularly France, are calling for. We do not need a third status, because that would be like the social Wild West!
These people, halfway between the two statuses, would be deprived of a large number of rights, including social protection. What is also particularly crucial for the Committee of the Regions is re-establishing human contact in all circumstances and banishing workers being managed solely by algorithms.
We also attach great importance to social dialogue and collective bargaining. Workers and workers’ representatives must be fully informed of decisions taken by platforms.
At present, it is the employee who has to go to court to be reclassified as an employee. Do you think the respective mandates of the European Parliament and the EU Council improve the situation?
The Parliament’s mandate, with its concept of automaticity, attempts to respond to this difficulty, but the EU Council, by tightening the criteria, risks complicating matters still further. For our part, we advocate a mechanism that is as flexible as possible for the employee, because legal action can be long and costly. In Belgium, there are two avenues of redress: judicial and administrative.
The former recently presented mixed opinions on Deliveroo, initially in favour of the workers and then in favour of the platforms. The administrative route is quicker and less costly. But as far as Belgian law is concerned, redress is individual and not collective, and that’s a shame. Because the more criteria that have to be met, the more it benefits the platforms, which can exploit the range of situations.
The Parliament’s proposal, based on the principle that everyone is an employee until proven otherwise, can therefore largely eliminate these grey areas. What we have proposed at the Committee of the Regions is similar to the Parliament’s approach: that it should be up to the platform, on the basis of the contract, to demonstrate that the worker is either an employee or self-employed. And, coming back to the EU Council, I really regret the action of certain countries led by France, which is defending this third status with very broad criteria. For me, a young worker with a rucksack and a bicycle is not self-employed.
And I don’t think, as we are told, that these are jobs for the future. These will only become jobs for the future if there is a real status that gives rights similar to those of other workers.
Belgium passed a law on platform workers at the end of 2022. Is it already improving things for them?
It has not yet borne fruit and also has its weaknesses. The so-called ‘Dermagne’ law (named after Pierre-Yves Dermagne, the Federal Minister of Economy) is good. It is inspired by the Commission’s directive actually, but there is a weakness which, unfortunately, is being exploited by the platforms.
There is a system in Belgium that more or less corresponds to this third status, under the collaborative economy system. It allows workers to combine a status, perhaps as a job seeker or social welfare recipient, with this ‘mini job’ as a delivery person or driver, as long as it does not exceed a certain annual amount.
One of the positive aspects of the law is that it provides work accident cover for employees, but unfortunately not for self-employed people or those working under this collaborative economy system. For the moment, negotiations are at a standstill for the self-employed, but for workers in the collaborative economy, a royal decree is expected soon.
But here again, employers are putting the brakes on. Here we see what is at stake with the law in Belgium and the directive at European level: protecting workers, giving them rights and good wages, and giving them the right to defend themselves and to have someone to communicate with instead of a machine.
Link to the opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/814