EU: Interim agreement on work via platform confirmed

The interim agreement reached on 8 February 2024 between the Presidency of the Council and the European Parliament’s negotiators on the Trans-European Directive confirmed today (1.1.2024) by the EU’s Ministers for Employment and Social Affairs. This EU legal act aims to improve working conditions and regulate the use of algorithms by digital work platforms. The Directive will make the use of algorithms in human resource management more transparent, ensuring that automated systems are monitored by qualified personnel and that workers have the right to challenge automated decisions. It will also help to correctly identify the working status of people working for platforms, enabling them to benefit from the labour rights they are entitled to. “This is the first EU legislation to regulate algorithmic workplace management and sets minimum EU standards to improve working conditions for millions of platform workers across the EU. The agreement confirmed today is based on the efforts of the previous Council presidencys and confirms the social dimension of the European Union,” said Pierre-Ive Dermani, vice president of the Belgian Government and Minister for Economy and Employment. Coping with false self-employment in platform work The agreed text strikes a balance between respecting national labour systems and ensuring minimum standards of protection for most of 28 million people working on digital work platforms throughout the EU. The main compromise elements revolve around a legal presumption that will help determine the correct working situation of individuals working on digital platforms: Member States will establish a legal evidence of employment in their legal systems, which will be triggered when events indicate control and direction are found, these events will be determined in accordance with national law and collective agreements, taking into account EU case-law individuals working on digital platforms, their representatives or national authorities can invoke this legal presumption and claim that they have been misclassified it is up to the digital platform to prove that there is no working relationship. In addition, Member States will provide guidance on digital platforms and national authorities when the new measures are implemented. Algorithmic management configuration The agreement reached with Parliament shall ensure that workers are duly informed of the use of automated monitoring and decision-making systems regarding their recruitment, working conditions and remuneration, inter alia. It shall also prohibit the use of automated monitoring or decision-making systems to process certain types of personal data of persons performing platform tasks, such as biometric data or their emotional or psychological state. Human supervision and evaluation are also guaranteed with regard to automated decisions, including the right to explain and review those decisions. Next steps The text of the agreement will now be finalised in all official languages and will be formally adopted by both institutions. Once the official steps of approval have been completed, Member States will have two years to incorporate the provisions of the Directive into their national legislation. SOURCE? RES-APA