EU Debates Digital Platform Rules for Gig Workers

The European Commission and the European Parliament are debating the future of digital platform work.

The contested ground in question is the platform work directive, first proposed by the European Commission (EC) in 2021 to harmonize employment definitions across the EU.

While platform work and the associated concept of the gig economy has spread throughout the EU, countries have diverged greatly on how gig-style employment fits within existing labor laws.

At the heart of the issue is whether platform workers are self-employed or should be considered employees and thus entitled to certain legal protections and benefits from their employer.

As proposed by the EC, the draft directive suggested that a platform be legally considered an employer if at least two out of the following five criteria are met:

● It determines the level of remuneration or sets upper limits

● It supervises the performance of work using electronic means

● It restricts the freedom to choose one’s working hours or periods of absence

● It sets specific binding rules about appearance,​ conduct toward the recipient of the service or performance of the work

● It restricts the possibility of building a client base or of performing work for any third party​

However, in a recent twist of events, the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) adopted a report that seeks further clarification on the default status of platform workers.

Under the EMPL’s plan, gig workers are presumed to be in an employment relationship with platforms, and if a platform wants to argue otherwise, it will have to prove that it does not meet the criteria.

Besides clarifying the employment status of gig workers, another key provision of the directive is that it seeks to govern algorithmic management — a key component of the gig economy.

By increasing transparency regarding the use of algorithms by digital labor platforms, ensuring human monitoring of working conditions and enshrining the right to contest automated decisions, the EU hopes to make algorithmic employment systems fairer.

Moreover, to strengthen workers’ protections, the European Parliament wants to prohibit automated systems from making important decisions and has moved to strengthen the provisions for human oversight contained within the platform work directive.

Reception and Next Steps

In general, EU moves to strengthen the rights of platform workers and end the misapplication of self-employed status to gig workers have been well-received by worker groups and unions.

For example, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) was broadly supportive of the commission’s original proposal but argued that it didn’t go far enough to improve the working conditions of many platform workers. It also objects to the directive’s reference to “employee representatives” instead of trade unions, arguing that this leaves room for platforms to choose their worker representatives.

However, in its recent report, the European Parliament has said that “digital labor platforms should ensure, together with the most representative trade unions, that elections for workers’ representatives comply with fundamental rights and freedoms and are in accordance with applicable national law.”

This more robust approach to workers’ protections has been called a “progressive step in [the] regulation of platform work” by the European Federation of Industrial and Services Cooperatives (CECOP).

With the EMPL committee and the EC in disagreement over several key passages in the proposed directive, they will have to find common ground for the legislation to advance.

In the next stage of the directive’s passage into law, the EMPL is set to enter negotiations with EU governments to review the final text.

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