The European Parliament has taken an important step towards ending bogus self-employment and precariousness in digital labour platforms. Delivery riders, cab drivers, content creators, programmers, click-workers, engineers and carers are among 28 million workers who would benefit from the provisions in the Employment Committee’s report which passed its plenary vote today. MEPs voted to end the system of false self-employment used by platform companies to cut costs at the detriment of workers’ pay and conditions.

Dear MEPs,  The mandate of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs on the proposal for a Directive on improving working conditions in platform work has been challenged by a group of MEPs and it will therefore be subject to vote in the plenary on Thursday. 

The European Parliament will vote on the draft EU law on platform work rights and whether to stop fake self-employment on platforms. The plenary vote is due to be held on Thursday 19 January.   The ETUC is urging MEPs to vote for the position agreed in the Employment Committee after long negotiations between the political groups. Trade unions are concerned that some members of the EPP, ECR and Renew will vote against it with the intention to further weaken the European Commission’s draft Directive.

The ETUC is calling on national ministers to reject the proposal of the Czech presidency on the platform work directive. The Czech proposal, which would weaken the directive, was rejected at COREPER last week following objections from eight member states. However, the Czech presidency has still failed to respond to concerns about their proposal and is pressing ahead in putting a largely unchanged proposal which they will present again to COREPER on Wednesday before trying to secure the agreement of ministers at EPSCO on Thursday. Their proposal would:

To: Members of the Committee of the Permanent Representatives of the Governments of the Member States to the European Union In CC: Social attachés Brussels, November 21st 2022 Dear Ambassador,

To: Member of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee of the European Parliament  Brussels, November 2nd 2022 Dear Member of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee at the European Parliament, As we enter November, a month that will be decisive in the work of the European Parliament to define your mandate on the Directive, ETUC wants to thank you for your efforts to reach broad support in the combat of bogus self-employment and better protection of platform workers’ rights. For ETUC, it is essential that the mandate includes:

This letter is a joint plea of trade unions, cooperative enterprises, and non-governmental organisations to the European institutions for an effective Directive on improving working conditions in platform work. We do not oppose digitalisation but believe that it should always provide social improvements, respect working conditions, and be developed in cooperation with workers and trade unions.

 

Dear Ministers, Dear Ambassadors, In December 2021, the European Commission presented a proposal of Directive on improving working conditions in platform work, which included a presumption of employment relationship for workers in digital labour platforms.

Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament Dragoş Pîslaru, Chair of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs at the European Parliament Dear Ms Metsola, Dear Mr Pîslaru, Certainly, you are aware of the documents made available by different media revealing Uber’s lobbying malpractices towards the EU institutions and Member States.

Dear Ms Gualmini,   Based on the discussion in the EMPL Committee on 12th July, you are well aware of the scandal of the Uber papers, revealing Uber’s lobbying towards the EU institutions and Member States.

The following letter is a joint plea of organisations of self-employed workers and trade unions, which has been sent to the French Labour Minister in view of the progress report discussion of EPSCO Council of today, calling on the European institutions for an effective Directive on improving working conditions in platform work. Our demands are the following.

ETUC calls for fair conditions for self-employed and employees

Dear Members of the European Parliament, Thank you all for being with us. It's great to see you in person and to organize this exchange at an important moment in the Directive's agenda to improve the working conditions of platform workers.

ETUC resolution on the proposal of the European Commission of a Directive on improving working conditions in platform work and way forward ahead of the ordinary legislative procedure Adopted at the Executive Committee Meeting of 16-17 March 2022 SUMMARY

At national level, trade unions continue to make progress in strengthening the rights of workers on platform companies. In Austria, the Vida union has concluded a collective agreement – backdated to January – offering a 3.5% pay rise for bicycle deliverers, following negotiations with the freight transport trade association. The social partners also agreed  to establish a working group to continuously adapt the collective agreement in light of developments in the industry.

This is a call for a subcontractor to provide expertise as part of the implementation of the ETUC project “Platform Reps - Strengthening workers’ representation for a fair platform work”. Deadline for submission of bids: Friday 11 March 2022 at noon (12:00).

*Signatories : Pierre-Yves Dermagne (Deputy Prime Minister for the Economy and Labour, Belgium), Yolanda Díaz (Minister of Labour and Social Economy, Spain), Ana Mendes Godinho (Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, Portugal), Hubertus Heil (Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Germany), Andrea Orlando (Labour and Social Policies Minister, Italy), Luca Visentini (General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, Italy), Ludovic

For this year’s World Day of Decent Work, ETUC has decided to focus its messages on workers in platform companies, calling on the Commission to make platform companies respect the rules and deliver decent work for workers. Have a look to our leaflet!

ETUC reply to the Second phase consultation of social partners under Article 154 TFEU on possible action addressing the challenges related to working conditions in platform work Resolution adopted at the extraordinary Executive Committee meeting of 9 September 2021 Main messages

Following the ground-breaking union recognition agreement signed in May, ride-hailing company Uber and the British GMB union have gone further: to unite in denouncing the “exploitation of more than 200,000 drivers” in the UK, urging other platform companies to respect their basic right to be represented by a trade union.

Political roadmap for the upcoming Second phase consultation of social partners on possible action addressing the challenges related to working conditions in platform work Adopted at the Executive Committee Meeting of 3-4 June 2021

ETUC reply to the First phase consultation of social partners under Article 154 TFEU on possible action addressing the challenges related to working conditions in platform work Resolution adopted at the virtual Executive Committee meeting on 22-23 March 2021 Main messages

ETUC Statement before 1st stage consultation on Platform Work This week, on Wednesday 24 February 2021, the European Commission will launch the first phase of the consultation of the social partners on improving the working conditions of workers on digital platforms.

Political roadmap of the upcoming European initiative on “Improving the working conditions of platform workers”[1] Resolution adopted at the extraordinary virtual Executive Committee meeting on 9 February 2021