At the beginning of December, a blocking minority of nine countries led by Spain stopped the deal on the proposed deal. digital platform workers directive like uber anyone delivery considering that the text, which should serve to improve the working conditions of the collective, is inadequate and unbalanced. Six months later, EU employment and social affairs ministers were able to sign a political agreement that would allow for the next EU presidency. SpainStart negotiating the new law with the European Parliament. Spain described the compromise as “democratically elusive” and abstained as “contrary to common sense”.
“To be honest, and out of our common sense, we cannot accept a teenager with a bike or a driver with a mobile phone as a business person or an entrepreneur. Not they. I want to be open. The text submitted to our approval today does not protect the workers. Spain cannot support a general orientation that does not advance workers’ rights. It is below the standards of the doctrine of European courts”, the second vice-president Yolanda Díaz explained during the public debate, and with her colleagues Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia signed a statement calling for much more ambitious legislation. Eight countries now hope that the text will be “developed” during inter-agency negotiation with the EU. European Parliament.
Despite reservations expressed by the eight delegations, the Swedish presidency signed the agreement, which it saw as balanced. “The sharing economy has brought many benefits to our lives, but this should not come at the expense of workers’ rights. The Council’s approach strikes a good balance between the protection of workers and the legal certainty of the platforms that employ them”, stressed the Swedish Minister for Gender Equality and Labor Paulina Brandberg The ‘rider law’ was approved in 2021 with the support of the social partners, after a debate in which Spain boasts of being a pioneer in this field.
Employment status
The approved project brings two key improvements, in the view of Sweden’s rotating EU presidency: it will help determine the correct employment status of people working on digital platforms to combat fraudulent self-employment, and the EU’s initial rules on the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace. Currently, according to European data, most More than 28 million digital platform employees in the EU has self-employment, including taxi drivers, domestic workers and food delivery workers. However, some have to follow many of the same rules and restrictions as an employee. According to the Council, this indicates that they maintain an employment relationship and therefore must enjoy the labor rights and social protection that national and EU legislation provides for employed workers. With the new law, the aim is to pave the way for these workers to be reclassified as workers.
According to the council’s general approach, workers will be legally considered to be employees (and not self-employed) of a digital platform if their relationship with the platform meets at least three of the seven criteria set out in the directive. includes the maximum limit of wages that workers can receive, restrictions on your ability to refuse a job, also the possibility of working for others, rules governing their appearance or behavior, supervision by electronic means, etc. Where the legal presumption is valid, it will fall to the digital platform to prove that there is no employment relationship according to national law and practice.
More transparent algorithms
The bill, approved by Twenty-seven, also envisions a more transparent use of algorithms so employees automatic tracking systems and decision making. Under the new rules, these systems will be supervised by qualified personnel who will enjoy special protection against adverse treatment. Human oversight is also guaranteed on some important decisions, such as suspension of accounts.
For Spain and all these guarantees, although the regulation contains advances in its current design, the “legal presumption of the employment relationship is less ambitious and effective than the one proposed by the Commission. The eight ministers who signed the statement said, “The rebuttable legal presumption is shared by all Member States and is the prerogative of the EU Court of Justice and national courts. It should be activated in accordance with clear and transparent rules and mechanisms that respect their jurisprudence.” presumption of employment “Without constraints or exceptions” because this simply maintains “the existing imbalance between digital platforms and the people and even agents working on them”.
Source: Informacion
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