A new provisional agreement between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU over the Platform Work Directive was struck on Thursday [February 8], putting the EU once again on the verge of a deal, just in the nick of time. A vote of member-states on the new deal is set to take place next Wednesday [14 February]. What does the agreement contain?While the Gig Economy Project has not seen the final agreed version following the 'trilogue' negotiation, we have accessed a text from the Belgian Presidency dated 3 February which we understand makes up the thrust of the provisional agreement barring a few tweaks. Gone are all of the indicators and thresholds for determining the employment status of platform workers. In its place is an obligation for member-states to establish a rebuttable legal presumption of employment in the platform economy, and a requirement that such a law is based on “facts indicating control and direction, according to national law, collective agreements or practice in force in the Member States and with consideration to the case-law of the Court of Justice”. In an explanation of these changes in the introduction to the text, the Belgian Presidency is unambiguous about what this means: "In consequence, there are no harmonised conditions for the triggering of the legal presumption in the text of the Directive. It is for the Member States to determine what facts indicating control and direction are to be found for the purposes of triggering the legal presumption." (Underline in original text.)In other words, this is a Platform-Work Directive-lite. It sets a framework for how employment status should be decided, without filling in the content of what that looks like. The initial intention of the European Commission, to harmonise labour standards in the platform economy across the European Union, will not be met by this Directive.For those in favour of employment rights for food delivery couriers, ridehail drivers and other gig workers, there are some positives to take from this outcome, presuming that it is ratified by both the Council and Parliament. Firstly, it could have been a lot worse. If the Council's proposal for a non-presumption of employment had been accepted by the Parliament in negotiations last week, it could have established such a high bar for triggering employment status that it would have undermined the jurisprudence established in hundreds of court cases across Europe, which have found that these workers are employees. There was a real risk of a law that was actively damaging to platform workers' employment rights: that appears to have been avoided.Secondly, the new text does include a reversal of the burden of proof, so that in all 27 member-states it will be up to the platform to take the case to court when, for instance, a labour inspectorate finds that a group of platform workers are employees. This is significant because, for example, in Belgium where currently there is a presumption of employment but no reversal of the burden of proof, there is no mechanism by which the platforms can be held to account which doesn't require government and/or unions pursuing a lengthy legal process.Third, the text relating to algorithmic management which was agreed under the Spanish Presidency remains intact. Workers and union representatives will have a right to know what automated systems are used, what information is collected on them and how decisions are made related to their work, including how their performance is evaluated. These new algorithmic rights, which in some aspects go well beyond GDPR, can at least in theory be accessed regardless of employment status, a significant advance for all platform workers.The big negative of the agreement is that, in member-states with governments hostile to employment rights in the platform economy, those governments now have quite a wide margin of discretion in determining what the presumption of employment looks like. There will be some limits on these governments: the European Commission will evaluate the introduction of each countries' presumption of employment and a law that is so wide-of-the-mark in terms of the reality of the working relationship (established in the case law mentioned above) could be legally struck down by the ECJ. But it's not clear these limits would be sufficient to box-in a government determined to design Uber-friendly legislation. What we can be sure of is that this law will not bring an end to the legal wrangling. Once countries' establish their own presumptions of employment, expect it to be tested by unions if it's weak and by platforms if it's strong. The same arguments which have taken place in Brussels over the past three years over what criteria, how much criteria and whether to have criteria at all (or a general presumption) will now shift to all of the capitals of Europe. When this Directive is sealed, the fight is far from over. In fact, it may just be getting started.Ben Wray, Gig Economy Project co-ordinator
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Gig Economy news round-up |
- UBER ANNOUNCE FIRST ANNUAL PROFIT: Uber has recorded its first annual profit in its history, of $1.1 billion. The Silicon Valley company published their fourth quarter results and annual results on Wednesday [7 February] for 2023, with revenue growing 15% year-on-year while the company's equity investments grew in value by $1 billion, accounting for almost all of the annual profit. “2023 was an inflection point for Uber, proving that we can continue to generate strong, profitable growth at scale," Uber's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said. The company had posted a $1.8 billion loss in 2022, with analysts including Hubert Horan and Len Sherman putting the company's financial turn-around down to its roll-out of a new 'upfront fares' policy near the end of 2022 which has created highly variable rates of pay for its drivers and riders, a pay policy also known as 'dynamic pricing'. In a call with investors on Wednesday, Khosrowshahi boasted that the company can now personalise pay rates based on driver "behavioural patterns". From 2014 to 2022, Uber made over $30 billion in losses, the largest of any tech start-up in history. Read more here.
- MOMENTUM BUILDS FOR NEW UK RIDERS' STRIKE DATE: After the success of the grassroots-organised UK food delivery strike on 2 February, a new strike date has been announced for next week on Valentine's Day. The organising group, Delivery Job UK, said that they hoped this strike would be even bigger than the last and called on riders to "join the picket lines". They also published an open letter to the UK's main food delivery platforms making them aware of the new strike and demanding "a fair compensation structure, one that not only keeps pace with inflation but also acknowledges the risks that we navigate daily". A group of Uber private hire drivers in Bristol have announced that they will be joining the strike, also calling for higher pay. A strike bulletin written by 'Notes from Below' with reflections on the last strike and perspectives about strike tactics from riders has been circulated in multiple languages. The strike will coincide with one taking place in Canada on the same day by Uber drivers.
- COURT FINDS STUART DELIVERY COURIERS ARE EMPLOYEES IN SPAIN: Stuart Delivery, a French delivery company which sub-contracts for Just Eat among others, will have to pay €237,000 in back-dated social security contributions for bogus self-employment in Spain. The Social Court of Barcelona no. 18 found that 108 delivery workers were falsely hired on a self-employed basis. “It must be declared that the relationship between the parties is of an employment nature," read the ruling, which refers to work between 2016 and 2019, before the Rider Law, which established a general presumption of employment in the food delivery sector, was introduced. Stuart Delivery has the option of appealing against the ruling. Commenting on the judgement, CGT Riders, which has the largest representation of Stuart Delivery riders on a workers committee in Barcelona, a body which gives official representation to workers within the company, said the judgement came "after five years fighting for the recognition of labour". They added that "now, the workers committees will have to force the company to comply with the sentence." Read more here.
- PLATFORM WORKERS ARE MORE PRO-UNION, ILO REPORT FINDS: A new study by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has found that European platform workers tend to have more positive attitudes about trade unions than the general population, despite fewer being trade union members. The study, by European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) researchers Kurt Vandaele, Agnieszka Piasna and Wouter Zwysen, surveyed 14 European countries, finding that while 69.2% of platform workers are pro-union, only 65% of the general population are. Platform workers are also more likely to want to join a union than the general population, 28% versus 23.8%. The study also found that 13.4% of platform workers are members of trade unions, but that most of these workers were members through other jobs that they also do in the non-platform economy. Food delivery couriers were the least likely to be union members, while platform care/cleaning workers were the most likely. Drivers of unionisation include pro-union attitudes, which increase the chances of a worker joining a union by 18% (significantly higher than the general population), being part of union-friendly social networks, which increase the chances by 10%, and being engaged in online communities, which increase the chances by 8%. Read the report here.
- DELIVERY HERO SEEKS TO STEM COLLAPSING SHARE PRICE: German multi-national Delivery Hero is struggling to stem a collapse in its share price. The company, which owns brands worldwide including Glovo, Foodora and Food Panda, saw its share price collapse last week after it sold its stake in British food delivery platform Deliveroo at a discount in a bid to raise cash. On Monday [5 February], the company released unaudited figures for Q4 2023 a week early in a bid to repair confidence. The figures stated that Delivery Hero's gross sales volume had risen by 6.8% to €47.6 billion, but it had little effect on the stock, which lost 26% of its value last week. Potentially more bad news for the Berlin-headquartered company is that two of Delivery Hero's competitors in South East Asia, Grab and GoTo, have announced merger talks. Delivery Hero had been in talks about selling FoodPanda, it's South-East Asian platform, to Singapore-owned Grab. Rumours last week that those talks had collapsed were described by the company as "false". Read more here.
Have we missed something important? You can help keep us informed by sending information to GEP@BraveNewEurope.com. |
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Fostering solidarity through cooperationIn a 'Verso virtual roundtable', Trebor Scholz responds to perspectives published on his new book 'Own This: How platform cooperatives help workers build a better internet'.
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- Council to vote on Platform Work Directive provisional agreement on 12 February.- UK-wide food delivery strike on 14 February. - The fourth transnational alternatives to Uberisation forum, organised by The Left group in the European Parliament, will be held February 21-22, in Brussels, Belgium. Full details TBC.- The European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) will host a conference on Future of work: rethinking workers' rights in the digital age, 21-22 February, in Brussels, Belgium. Click here for full details and to register (limited places available).- The WE-TRANSFORM final conference will be a hybrid event held in Brussels on 5 March. Click here for full details and to regiser.
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The Gig Economy Project is a media network for gig workers and we welcome contributions from workers, writers, academics, activists - anyone who wants to stand up for workers' rights in the gig economy.
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