Filenews 13 March 2024 - by Adamos Adamou
EU employment ministers on Monday paved the way for a vote on a European directive aimed at improving working conditions on digital platforms, including food delivery apps, endorsing a provisional agreement reached in February this year.
Therefore, after several setbacks and disagreements, it is expected that in the near future, possibly in April, the directive will be put to the vote before the European Parliament. With its passage, member states, including Cyprus, will have two years to adopt it by applying specific rules to improve working conditions on platforms but also to better clarify the employment status of those working on them.
The agreement sealed last Monday is due to the efforts of the Belgian presidency and the European Parliament's negotiators, resulting in new negotiations resulting in a new text that seems to leave the trade unions satisfied.
The European Trade Union Confederation, the ETUC, said that with the adoption of the directive by member states, millions of people working on digital platforms will finally receive minimum wages, sick pay and other employment protection. According to the ETUC, trade unions succeeded in including the presumption of employment in the agreement by reversing the burden of proof, so instead of individual workers going through lengthy court proceedings to prove they are employees, it will now be up to companies to prove that they are not their employees.
The directive also recognises the role of trade unions in all aspects of the platform economy. The directive also aims to tackle platform bogus employment, arguing in its own statement that the final text strikes a balance between respecting national labour systems and ensuring minimum standards of protection for the more than 28 million people currently working on digital labour platforms across the EU. This figure the EU estimates will rise to 43 million by the end of 2025. The text of the agreement also regulates algorithmic management by providing that employees will be duly informed about the use of automated monitoring and decision-making systems regarding, inter alia, their recruitment, working conditions and remuneration.
Almost all self-employed
According to the EU today, the vast majority of those employed on digital platforms are self-employed, so they do not enjoy enough of the labour rights of other workers. This is why the new rules promoted by the directive address cases of incorrect categorisation of platform workers and facilitate their classification as employees, so that they have easier access to labour rights.
The EU estimates that 55% of platform workers earn less than the net minimum hourly wage in the country where they work, where this has been set. Of the 28.3 million people employed on platforms, only 7% (2 million) are employees while 93% (26.3 million) are self-employed. Among the self-employed, 19% are likely to have been incorrectly registered (around 5 million). Regarding their profile, he notes that platform work is usually their secondary source of income, in addition to their regular work. In relation to the jobs performed through platforms and the incomes of the people who work on them, he says that the taxi sector dominates (39%), followed by various deliveries (food delivery, transport services, shopping) at 24%.
Supported by Cyprus
Cyprus, as stated by the Minister of Labour Yiannis Panayiotou, who participated in the meeting of the Council of Ministers of Employment and Social Policy (EPSCO) of the EU from the first moment supported this directive, confirming in turn the agreement on the issue reached on Monday.
"We agreed on better regulation of the labour rights of digital platform workers, with the adoption of the relevant Directive after lengthy consultations, during which Cyprus had a positive stance from the beginning, and we confirmed that through dialogue we can all together find mutually acceptable solutions to complex issues," Panayiotou said, referring to other contacts with his counterparts he had within the Council on Monday.
EPSCO's work continued yesterday with a joint meeting with ECOFIN to discuss wage adequacy. However, as we are informed, European developments on platforms do not seem to affect the ongoing negotiations at the Ministry of Labor that focus on improving the working conditions of workers in food delivery applications through the conclusion of a collective agreement.
Consultations with the involvement of the unions are currently taking place with fleet management companies with which the delivery platforms cooperate, and as mentioned, the attempted regulations in the EU do not upset the framework of discussion nor will, as union sources estimate, cause a delay. However, it is not excluded that the whole framework will be further strengthened and enriched, probably by any legislative regulations that are expected to exist.
