Brussels (Brussels Morning) – The European Parliament has approved a directive to improve working conditions for digital platform workers, establishing employment presumption and protections against algorithmic decisions, addressing misclassification, and enhancing data protection measures.
European Parliament approved new rules that sought to improve employment conditions for people working via a digital platform. The new rules, approved by the Parliament and the Council in February, adopted by 554 votes in acceptance, 56 votes against and 24 abstentions, seek to ensure that people functioning via platforms have a correctly specified professional status and to correct “falsework independent”. The text also controls, for the first time in the EU, the usage of algorithms in the workplace.
European Parliament Press section states that the new law presents a presumption of an employment relationship (as conflicted to self-employment) which is started as soon as facts indicate the existence of control and direction, following national law and collective agreements, and taking into account European case law.
What Measures Does the Directive Introduce for Platform Workers?
The Directive mandates Member States to establish a rebuttable legal premise of employment at the national level, to rectify the power imbalance between the digital labour platform and the individual carrying out the work via a platform. The responsibility of proof lies with the platform, which suggests that it is up to them to prove that the contractual connection is not an employment relationship.
What Data Protection Measures Are Included in the Directive?
The new rules provide that a person performing work via a platform cannot be fired or fired based on a determination made by an algorithm or automated decision-making system. Instead, venues must provide human oversight over critical decisions that directly affect people doing work through a platform.
The directive also presents measures to better protect the data of people operating via platforms. Digital labour platforms will be banned from processing certain types of personal data, such as data relating to someone’s emotional or psychological state and personal beliefs.
MEP Elisabetta Gualmini stated: “With this directive, almost 40 million people working via platforms in the EU will have access to fair working conditions. This historic agreement will ensure their dignity, and protection and will give them rights. It corrects false self-employment and prevents unfair competition while protecting real self-employment and introducing innovative rules on the management of algorithms. proud to be able to say that Europe protects its workers, its social model and its economy.”
What Were the Expectations Behind the Adoption of the Directive?
A 2021 European Commission analysis discovered that there were more than 500 active digital labour platforms and that the sector engaged more than 28 million people — a figure that could reach 43 million by 2025. These platforms live in different economic sectors, whether via localization, such as chauffeur services or food delivery, or online, with assistance like data encoding and translation.
While most platform employees are officially freelancers, approximately 5.5 million people could be misclassified as freelancers.
With the adoption of this ruling, Parliament reacts to the expectations of citizens scheduled in proposals of the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe, in issues of inclusiveness of the labour market and digital innovation to reinforce the social and sustainable economy.
