“We worked hand-in-hand to move the business forward. We tried to present the compromise versions, but failed to reach the qualified majority in the final vote”, the Czech minister summed up at the end of the EU Ministerial Council for Social Affairs and Employment Marian Jurecka about the outcome of the negotiation directive on digital platform employeesEuropean ‘rider law’. Spain and eight other countries –Portugal, Slovenia, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Greece, Germany and Romania– they succeeded in forming a blocking minority, and in the end they opposed the Czech compromise that the vice-president wanted. Yolanda Diaz was found to be insufficient.
“The presumption of employment is unbalanced, significantly weakened by the Commission’s initial recommendation, and does not allow for accurate classification of people working on digital platforms. It also does not guarantee homogeneous protection in the EU,” said Díaz, explaining why he rejected a compromise proposal that takes into account the reduction of workers’ rights, diluting the assumption that workers are employed on platforms such as Uber, Glovo or Deliveroo. it does not put an end to the exploitation of the fraudulent self-employed who will continue in an unstable situation.
The Czech presidency of the EU tried until the last minute to devise a compromise that could be accepted by the maximum delegation, and in the final vote, as Jurečka noted, they came close to reaching the required qualified majority, but in the end Prague was short of votes to implement the norm. “We have managed to make progress and we are close to an agreement. I am optimistic,” he said after the meeting. The file will now be in the hands of the Swedish EU presidency, which will take the reins of the six-month rotating presidency on January 1, 2023. It was too low” to “too high” for others.
“We have succeeded in bringing these two positions closer together. We needed a little more time to do more consultation and clarify things. “I think we are very close to reaching an agreement today,” Jurečka insisted on a proposal aimed at improving the recognition of the workforce of these workers. Alongside the employment commissioner, Nicholas Schmitt, conceded that the deal was not easy and that there were fundamental differences between countries advocating a proposal close to the one put forward by Brussels and those determined to dilute it. “I think the floor is well cleaned. “We are very close to the approach proposed by the Commission and I believe an agreement can be reached,” he said.