The platform worker becomes an employee, Brussels says in the past
They have come to symbolize precarious and ill-protected work: Deliveroo’s meal deliverers, Uber’s taxi drivers and Temper’s catering clerks. The European Commission now wants to put an end to this with far-reaching rules.
Platform workers who have little entrepreneurial freedom are automatically regarded as employees, state in a next quote. With scheme for basic employee rights, holidays and pension accrual.
If the European Parliament agrees to the new rules, this will affect 1.7 to 4.1 million platform workers in the EU. They currently work as independent entrepreneurs, but will soon be labeled as employees. Their remuneration can increase by an average of EUR 121 per year. The legislation will be introduced around 2024 at the earliest.
With the proposal, the Commission wants to emphasize one of its main points: that Brussels is also there for the social protection of EU citizens. In recent years, in many EU countries, resistance to the ‘race to the bottom‘ and labor exploitation that would be stimulated by the European market. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made it a priority when she took office two years ago.
The new European legislation planned this Thursday should put an end to the patchwork of different rules that arise within the EU, including through a flood of lawsuits in different EU countries. According to the Commission, there are already more than 10,000 judgments on the employment status of platform workers in the EU. “Clearly there must be clarity, and not just on an ad hoc basis by different judges,” documents European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis (Economics) on Thursday.
no self-employed
At the beginning of this year, the UK’s highest ranking ruled that drivers of taxi app Uber are employees – not self-employed. That same month, the Amsterdam court ruled that the Dutch bicycle couriers of Deliveroo are employees, and must be paid as such. Deliveroo does not stick to its plans and has said it will appeal to the Supreme Court. In Belgium, a judge ruled on Wednesday that couriers from the same company are actually self-employed.
Companies such as Deliveroo and Uber have ramped up their lobbying activity in Brussels in recent months – apparently without much success. In a response to the plans, they point out that their platform workers attach great importance to their independent status. The consequences for companies could be significant: the Commission estimates that the sector could lose an additional EUR 4.5 billion annually. She knows that consumers can start with these costs. At the same time, it could add up to the treasury’s annual $4 billion in additional premium and tax revenue.
“We are hereby responding to the wish for factuality within the EU,” said European Commissioner Nicolas Schmit (Banen) on Thursday. He pointed to the level playing field that can be created by the rules. As an example, Brussels points to the Dutch meal delivery company Just Eat Takeaway, which has now avoided higher personnel costs than the company has avoided self-employed persons constructions. CEO Jitse Groen indeed enthusiastic on the plan from Brussels.
Also read: Takeaway CEO Jitse Groen: ‘You can’t beat us anymore’
Five features
The Commission has formulated five characteristics that indicate that a platform such as this should be designed. Such as unilaterally imposing the behavior and limiting the freedom to prevent. If the platform meets a minimum of two of the five characteristics, it is considered an employer. Then national enforcers and labor inspectorates should also treat them that way.
But as soon as the platform company goes to court, it suddenly reverts to current national laws and definitions. If a platform company can go to court that it is not an employer according to Dutch rules, it can continue as before. There is no other way, says an EU official. Heads of government would not accept it if the EU documents what national labor law looks like.
While an agreement welcomes the plans, they have doubts about the effectiveness of the proposal. The FNV fears that platform companies will use the five criteria set to make their self-employed constructions leaner. „Platforms will use them as toolbox to hit the criteria and get away with it completely,” says FNV board member Petra Bolster.
In addition, platform workers need to be given all employee rights. The kingdom is leaving open for launch to start platform workers as an ’employee-light’, as the UK does. there have’workers‘ more rights than individually, but can they be described, for example, than the better protected employees (‘Staff members‘).
If the Netherlands also stripped down employment contracts like this, platform workers are “actually worse off” than now, says Johan Zwemmer, lawyer and lecturer in employment law at the University of Amsterdam. “Now the judges can still ask them to become like someone who is fully employed.” And the judge often agrees with them.
Rules made
According to Zwemmer, platform workers will therefore benefit more if the rules are implemented in the Netherlands, which hardly happens now. Deliveroo can work with judges and with freelancers, he says, ‘because the tax authorities have not immediately sent an additional assessment and claims over the past few years’.
Also read: Hiring false self-employed can still go unpunished next year
State Secretary Dennis Wiersma (Social Affairs, VVD) does not yet want to respond to the proposal. They did say that the Netherlands finds it “logical” that this subject is being discussed in a European context. “We are the only country facing a challenge.”
It shows how even countries that normally don’t feel like European social legislation – including the Netherlands – view the plans positively. The headaches caused by the ‘platform economy’ are too universal for countries to regulate this nationally. More branches of the economy will organize themselves as ‘platforms’ and the erosion of social obligations that could start. There is also broad support for the legislation in the European Parliament.
A version of this article also in NRC in the morning of December 10, 2021