The college of commissioners approved “the package of measures to improve the conditions of digital platform workers”, including the so-called home delivery riders. This was announced by the vice president of the EU Commission Valdis Dombrovskis following the college. The measures will be presented on 9 December.
The new criteria for framing relationships
In its initiative, which will be presented by the EU Vice President Dombrovskis himself and by the European Commissioner for Labor, Nicolas Schmit, Brussels provides a series of criteria to determine whether a platform can be equated with an employer and establish the correct statute of workers , giving those not properly framed the opportunity to be recognized as employees. And to enjoy all the benefits and rights deriving from this reclassification, from the minimum wage where applicable to paid holidays, from sickness allowance to pension. Among the criteria, as already anticipated in recent days, there is the definition of the level of remuneration and working hours.
Companies have the burden of proving that the worker is self-employed
In the event of a dispute, the employer will have to prove in court that it is self-employed. The new rules could impact several million workers, up to about 4.1 million, out of the 5.5 million who, according to EU estimates, could currently be incorrectly classified as self-employed. The proposal will also include a section on the use of artificial intelligence and algorithms to evaluate and schedule the work done, providing workers with possible ways to challenge decisions made in an automated way. Brussels also aims to impose transparency obligations on platforms vis-à-vis national authorities.