The economy of digital platforms such as UBER, Deliveroo, Lieferando and many others is growing rapidly, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

To date, more than 28 million people in the EU work via one or more digital work platforms. Around 5.5 million workers on these platforms are currently wrongly classified as self-employed, even though they would meet all the criteria to be classified as employees.

 

The recent proposal for an EU directive on platform workers aims to put an end to this dubious classification and give gig economy workers some protection. 

 

Firstly, it will create a rebuttable presumption on the part of the platform as to the employee status of platform workers.

 

Thus, a platform worker will be considered an employee and not a self-employed worker when two of the following five indicators are met:

 

-      ceiling applicable to the remuneration that workers may receive ;

-      supervision of the performance of their work, including by electronic means ;

-      control over the distribution or allocation of tasks;

-      control of working conditions and limitation of the freedom to choose working hours;

-      limitation of the freedom to organise one's work and rules on appearance or conduct.

 

In cases where the legal presumption applies, it will be up to the digital platform to demonstrate that no employment relationship exists in accordance with national law and practice.

 

Finally, it turns out that digital work platforms generally use algorithms of which gig workers are often unaware. They are also unaware of how certain decisions relating to the quality of their services are taken. These include disciplinary sanctions such as warnings and dismissals.

 

This is why the directive also provides for the introduction of transparency in the use of algorithms.

 

Digital work platforms will be prohibited from processing certain types of personal data using automated monitoring and decision-making systems.

 

The systems put in place will have to be supervised by qualified staff, and human control will also be guaranteed for certain important decisions.

 

This proposal for a directive will now have to be approved by the Council and the European Parliament before it can be definitively adopted and subsequently transposed into national law.

 

Digital platforms will continue to revolutionise the world of work.