After years of wrangling and rancour - all the debates, all the documents, all the formulas (2/5? 3/7? No criteria!?) - in the end there was nothing. The EU will not have a Platform Work Directive, after France, Germany, Greece and Estonia formed a 'blocking minority' of member-states on Friday [16 February].You can read the Gig Economy Project's full report on the vote and reaction to it here.There are many reflections one could make about this failure, but we will limit ourselves to just three. First, this can hardly be considered a democratic outcome. The image above of the final vote was tweeted by European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) confederal secretary Ludovic Voet, who wrote: "[Is this what] EU democracy looks like? 'No' and 'abstention' counts alike. Huge majority of countries supporting [the Directive] (23 out of 27). 63% of population [share of EU states] in favour. If abstention would not count, 80.79% in favour. How can you still abstain after 800 days of discussion?"Voet has a point. That four countries can block the will of 23 countries is not democracy. That outcome was only possible because two countries - France and Germany - make-up 33.8% of the EU population, and states representing 65% of the EU population are required for the Council to agree to a new law. The Franco-German axis have what is very close to a veto on EU legislation. Secondly, while one can lament the votes of France, Greece and Estonia, at the end of the day these are ideologically Uber-friendly governments. Germany's case requires closer scrutiny. A coalition government led by the Social Democratic Party (SPD), their continual abstention throughout the process (as Voet says, it has now lasted 800 days!!) has handed French President Emmanuel Macron enormous leverage to dictate terms. The story we are being told is that the ultra-liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) is to blame. But that seems a little too convenient. The FDP is the smallest party in the coalition government, they do not control the labour ministry (an SPD minister does) and they are currently polling below 5%, the threshold required to enter the Bundestag. If the FDP is exercising a veto, it is because Chancellor Olaf Scholz has handed one to them gift-wrapped. Once again, European social democracy cannot simply pin the blame for the failure of this Directive on the right-wing.Finally, it is worth zooming out a little when considering what this failure means. The gig economy took-off in Europe around a decade ago and has grown sharply in recent years. It represents a major challenge to what was called 'the European social model', which the ETUC describes as "an example for the rest of the world of a society based on social justice and solidarity...where decent work and social protection combat poverty and social exclusion." That has always been exaggerated: poverty has been an ever-present in Europe. But it is quite clear that to the extent that the European social model was ever a real thing, it has been significantly undermined in recent decades by austerity, privatisation and precarious work. Uberisation - the use of new algorithmic management tools as a pretence for avoiding employment protections - is symbolic of the decline in the European social model. That is why the European Commission put platform work regulation at the top of its agenda when the current parliamentary term began, all the way back in 2019. The EU was supposed to bring in 'world leading' regulation to stop digitised exploitation, inspiring other countries and regions of the world to follow in its slipstream. 5 years later, the EU has failed in that endeavour, a failure that will be noticed well beyond Europe, sending out a message not that it is possible to rein in the platforms, but that the platforms reign supreme. But all is not lost. Indeed, as we have stated on many occasions, it could have been worse: a European version of Prop-22 was not impossible, and would have been a disaster. At the end of the day, the 23 member states which voted in favour of the Platform Work Directive all have power over labour law: if they want to, they could establish a presumption of employment in their own countries' just as quickly as the time it would have taken to transpose an EU Directive (two years). The Gig Economy Project will be reporting from Brussels next week at 'The Alternatives to Uberisation' and 'Future of Work' conferences, where gig workers, trade-unionists, politicians and academics will be picking the bones out of this failure and developing a strategy to move forward from here. As Mandela put it, "I never lose. I either win or learn."Ben Wray, Gig Economy Project co-ordinator
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Gig Economy news round-up |
- UK VALENTINE'S DAY RIDERS' STRIKE SHUTS DOWN THE PLATFORMS AGAIN: For the second time in two weeks, major food delivery platforms struggled to operate in many sites across the UK as riders' took strike action on Valentine's Day. Reports flooded in of no deliveries coming out of various 'dark kitchens' and restaurants between 5-10pm. Videos show major protests of riders in Brighton and London. One restaurant chain, Honest Burgers, sent out a message to customers saying that they may not be able to have food delivered because of the strike. Like on the 2 February strike, there is evidence that Deliveroo significantly raised prices for deliveries in an attempt to break the strike. The strike was grassroots-organised by riders operating through social media accounts called 'Delivery Job UK', and came on the same day as a strike of Uber, Lyft and DoorDash drivers and riders took place in Canada and the United States. The strike also spread to Ireland, with riders in Dublin and Galway among those to take action. As one of the leading organiser's, Rafael, told the Gig Economy Project on the eve of the industrial action, the strike was sparked by riders seeing pay decline since the start of the year.
- UBER ANNOUNCES $7 BILLION SHARE BUYBACK: Uber's share price surged on Wednesday [14 February] after the company announced a share buyback for investors. Stocks rose 12% on the announcement, which came a week after the Silicon Valley company announced its first-ever annual profit for 2023. “Today’s authorisation of our first-ever share repurchase program is a vote of confidence in the company’s strong financial momentum," Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah, Chief Financial Officer, said on Wednesday. A share buyback is when a company pays shareholders to buy back their own shares, reducing the number in circulation and increasing their own stake in the company. It reduces the company's available cash but typically boosts its share price. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has a vested interest in keeping the company's market capitalisation high because he is in line for a bonus of around $50 million if he can keep the market cap above €120 billion for 90 consecutive days, with a deadline of September 2024 to do so. The market cap is current at $161 billion. The share buyback announcement came on the same day as Uber drivers and riders took strike action in the UK, Ireland, Canada and the US. Read more here.
- JUST EAT CEO TELLS SPANISH COURTS TO COLLECT GLOVO FINES: Just Eat's CEO, Jitse Groen, has called on Spain's judges to end their leniency towards Glovo, Spain's largest food delivery platform, after a court suspended payment for a bogus self-employment fine due to the company's "extreme" financial situation. The suspension was the second Glovo had won in just a few weeks. Glovo has racked up almost €300 million in fines and back-dated social security contributions for bogus self-employment, but has now started to appeal to courts to not enforce payment on the basis that the company, which is owned by German multi-national Delivery Hero, is in financial trouble. Glovo cited its losses over multiple years and an expected loss this year, that the company is struggling to access loans from banks, and the sharp decline in the share price of its parent company in recent weeks as reasons for its inability to pay. "The second time this month our competitor claims to go bankrupt if they have to pay the fines they incur for not having paid taxes and social security for years," Groen tweeted. "Time for the Spanish courts to collect the Spanish taxpayers’ money." Just Eat employs its riders in Spain, either directly or via sub-contractors, and thus pays tax and social security contributions on that basis. Glovo's first suspension was for a €64 million fine, the second just for €2 million. A court had previously rejected Glovo's claim, but the contentious chamber of the National Court accepted it on the basis that payment could put "the solvency and liquidity situation of the company” at risk. 'El Economista' reports that Glovo's fines last year exceeded €205 million in 2023, a third of the company's income. Read more here.
- FOOD DELIVERY COURIER DIES IN LILLE AFTER BEING HIT BY CAR: A 31 year-old food delivery courier died in the early hours of Sunday morning [11 February] after being hit by a car moving at high speed in the northern French city of Lille. Reports say the rider was thrown several meters from the point of impact and hit a traffic pole. The driver of the car tried to flee the incident but was quickly caught by a witness. Emergency services were quickly on the scene but could not resuscitate the rider, who worked for various platforms including Deliveroo and Uber. "It’s important that your readers know that it was a delivery man ,” another rider told 'La Voix Du Nord'. "Too many delivery people die amid general indifference to bring a burger to delivery platform customers." Fabian Tosolini, union delegate for Indepéndants, responded to the fatality by saying that it "reinforces our idea that these companies must assume the physical protection of all of their delivery people". Read more here.
- WOLT RIDERS' STRIKE IN CYPRUS: Around 70 food delivery couriers for Wolt took strike action in the Cypriot city of Larnaca on Friday [16 February], demanding that the Finnish-founded platform improve working conditions. The riders had sent a letter to Wolt's management identifying "critical concerns", including reduced pay, discrepancies between riders' in pay and inconsistencies in the amount of pay they receive relative to distance travelled. The riders are also unhappy that there is no higher fee for working in adverse weather conditions and that the company does nothing about unprofessional behaviour from some restaurant owners and customers. "If our concerns are not addressed satisfactorily, we regret to inform that we will proceed with a strike until our terms are met," the letter stated. Wolt, which is owned by American food delivery platform DoorDash, did not respond, leading to Friday's strike. 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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- 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. Click here for details.- 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.
If you would like to write for the site, discuss arranging an interview with GEP, or simply have information about developments in the gig economy in Europe you think we should be aware of, get in touch.
Contact project co-ordinator Ben Wray at GEP@BraveNewEurope.com or send a direct message to the Twitter: @project_gig.
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