Several members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs called, on Tuesday 23 January, on the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister for the Economy, Pierre-Yves Dermagne, to preserve the agreement reached with the European Parliament on the night of 12-13 December on digital platform workers and to take account of “the European Parliament’s red lines”, as the German MEP from the EPP group, Dennis Radtke, put it.
The Belgian minister set out the priorities of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU in the area of employment, and was called upon by the German MEP in particular not to accept “the general derogation requested by France, which is an absolute red line for the European Parliament” and “will not be accepted”, the German MEP said, referring to a clause corresponding to collective agreements reached in France in the platform economy sector.
He was joined by the Dutch Socialist Agnes Jongerius (S&D) and Sara Matthieu (Greens/EFA, Belgian), who called on the Deputy Prime Minister to improve the rights “of these workers who find themselves in a grey area”, according to the Dutch MEP.
This “French clause” is “unacceptable”, she added, placing the hopes of “28 million workers” in this platform economy in the hands of the Deputy Prime Minister.
Leïla Chaibi (The Left, French), for her part, said she was “quite surprised, even stunned” by the “proposal you have just presented, we were counting on you to be an ally of workers”, but with this latest text, “no worker” will be able to be reclassified as an employee.
The Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU has the ambition of finalising this directive on platform workers in “the next few weeks”, the Belgian minister assured, stating that this sector is a source of jobs and also an asset for consumers.
While this directive represents “an historic opportunity” to improve the rights of these workers and regulate algorithmic labour management for the first time, the Belgian Presidency does not intend to “disrupt” the platform model.
“We are aware of the difficulty of this issue and of the still distant positions between the EU Council and the European Parliament; we are negotiating a new mandate to relaunch the trilogues”, replied the minister, saying that he understood the European Parliament’s position. “We’ll do everything we can to reconcile points of view”.
Among the other priorities, the Deputy Prime Minister also emphasised the fair mobility of workers in the EU and the ongoing evaluation of the mandate of the European Labour Authority. A conference will be held on 25 January.
The minister said that he also wants to push forward Social Europe and the Pillar of Social Rights, and several events will be dedicated to this, such as the forthcoming European Social Partner Summit in Val Duchesse or the meeting in La Hulpe in April, which will result in a new declaration on the future of Social Europe and a new agenda.
The Belgian minister also promised to work towards a lasting association between the ‘Ecofin’ and EPSCO networks to strengthen the social dimension of economic governance, beyond the Jumbo ECOFIN/EPSCO scheduled for March, he added.
Responding to a question from Dominique Bilde (ID, French) on the social dumping that could result from the arrival of workers from current enlargement candidate countries, Pierre-Yves Dermagne explained that revising and strengthening ELA’s mandate would be “an essential instrument in the fight against social dumping”.
The Left MEP Nikolaj Villumsen (Danish) also called on the Presidency to work towards a revision of the directive on public procurement to prevent social dumping and strengthen social criteria.
The Deputy Prime Minister agreed, saying that it was essential to discuss this tool, which should also enable the EU to defend its social standards.
The subject will be on the agenda of an informal EU ‘Competitiveness’ Council on 9 February in Genk, he added. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)