chris123 schreef op 8 februari 2024 19:38:
www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-...Bloomberg) -- The ride-hailing industry criticized a provisional deal struck on Thursday by European Union negotiators that aims to strengthen gig workers’ employment rights.
The proposed regulation would ensure people working for platforms like Uber Technologies Inc., Deliveroo Plc and others are able to more easily challenge their employment status, and puts the onus on platforms to prove a worker is not an employee, according to a European Parliament statement.
The Platform Work Directive has faced numerous setbacks since it was first proposed by the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, in 2021. Time is running short to reach a final agreement before EU elections in June.
MoveEU, the association of ride-hailing platforms that represents companies including Bolt and Uber within Europe, sharply criticized the proposed regulation and called on EU countries to reject it.
The group’s Chair Aurélien Pozzana said it was the result of a “rushed process to agree to any directive at any price, despite lack of support from many member states.”
“Given the vague nature of the text and the lack of thorough impact assessment, it would lead to uncertainty for national labor systems and hundreds of thousands of professional drivers while greatly hindering operations for ride-hailing platforms if it was to be adopted,” he added.
A Just Eat Takeaway.com NV spokesperson said Thursday’s deal was “positive” but the company was waiting for further details on the text of the proposed regulation. An Uber representative said the company wouldn’t comment until it had seen the full text.
Deliveroo declined to comment. Wolt did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A provisional deal was previously reached in December, but then failed to get the necessary support from EU countries. It would have classified platform workers as employees if they met certain criteria covering working conditions and salaries.
Thursday’s agreement, which leaves member states to set the employment criteria, may meet the same fate. It will be presented to member states on Friday and will likely face a vote next week, according to an EU official.
The regulation also prohibits platforms from firing workers based on algorithms or automated decision-making systems.
When a version of the rules was first proposed, the industry would have been on the hook for an additional €4.5 billion ($5 billion) per year based on the number of eligible workers at the time, according to the commission’s estimates.
Thursday’s provisional agreement still needs to be formally adopted by both the parliament and the Council of the EU, comprising EU member states, before it enters into force.
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