Platform workers: Council confirms agreement on new rules to improve their working conditions
EU employment and social affairs ministers confirmed the provisional agreement reached on 8 February 2024 between the Council’s presidency and the European Parliament’s negotiators on the platform work directive. The directive has two main objectives:
On the one hand, addressing false self-employment in platform work. The agreed text strikes a balance between respecting national labour systems and ensuring minimun standars of protection for the more than 28 million persons working in digital platforms across the EU. Member states will establish a legal presumption of employment in their legal systems, to be triggered when facts indicating control and direction are found. Those facts will be determined according to national law and collective agreements, while taking into account EU case-law.
On the other hand, regulating algorithmic management. The agreement reached ensures that workers are duly informed about the use of automated monitoring and decision-making systems regarding their recruitment, their working conditions and their earnings, among other things. It also bans the use of automated monitoring or decision-making systems for the processing of certain types of personal data of persons performing platform work, such as biometric data or their emotional or psychological state. Human oversight and evaluation are also guaranteed as regards automated decisions, incluiding the right to have those decisions explained and reviewed.
After the formal steps of the adoption have been completed, Member states will have two years to incorporate the provisions of the directive into their national legislation.