By the EESC Workers' Group

In its March plenary, the EESC adopted an important opinion on the Commission proposal for a directive on improving working conditions for platform work. Adding to the proposal, the EESC considered it fundamental to stress the presumption of employment relationships, and to strengthen these provisions so as to prevent further loopholes allowing employees to be classified as self-employed. The opinion also focuses on the role of algorithmic management and the collective rights of platform workers.

The debate on this new directive for platform workers, aimed at ensuring their clear classification as employees in order to prevent the current practices, has been met with staunch opposition from many employers across Europe. The frontal rejection by many of the regularisation of precarious and bogus self-employment makes the need for this legislation all the more evident: the issue will not solve itself with industry self-regulation. Without legislation, platforms will keep acting on the boundary of what it means to be employed, avoiding collective bargaining and social protection. In doing so, they offer cheaper prices to consumers, and, as usual, pass on the dire consequences and hidden costs to society as a whole.

This action to ensure legal certainty and clarity across Europe is not just in the interests of workers, however. Many companies whose voices have not been heard, and which comply not just with the letter but also the spirit of labour legislation, face unfair competition due to these forms of social dumping. As we discuss the Future of Europe, this is an integral part of that discussion: upwards social convergence, or a race to the bottom. Ultimately, the social peace enjoyed by all, including businesses, also depends on social cohesion and a certain degree of equality, and those are jeopardised by predatory capitalism.

New forms of work, by their very nature, will always be a contested space. Platform work, evidently, is no exception. On the one hand, technological progress offers new organisational possibilities and employment opportunities. On the other, this often comes along with precarity. The process is in fact not new: from the dawn of the industrial revolution, trade unions were born as a response of solidarity against the inhuman working conditions created by factories. Much has happened since, and strong labour protection is generally in place, at least in Europe. Nevertheless, correction is again necessary to ensure this innovation does not happen at the expense of the living and working conditions of our citizens and workers. (prp)