On Monday 14 October, the Council of the European Union definitively adopted the directive on digital platform workers. All the Member States, including France, voted in favour. Only Germany abstained in the absence of a coalition agreement (see EUROPE 13368/1).
The directive, to be presented at the end of 2021, is intended to enable bogus self-employed workers on platforms to be reclassified as employees by creating a legal presumption of salaried status determined by a series of criteria to be developed by the Member States at national level. The presumption will be triggered when certain facts indicating control and direction are observed, the EU Council points out.
The text will also make the use of algorithms in human resources management more transparent and impose human supervision of any decision affecting a worker’s situation.
Member States will have two years to transpose the directive once it has been published in the Official Journal of the EU.
Long opposed to the direction of the text, Paris, which wanted further clarification on the application of the presumption, was finally able to support it after the Commission announced, on 9 October, implementing guidelines, which it will prepare with the Member States.
According to one source, this is standard assistance provided during transposition. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)