EU eyes overhaul of app workers' conditions

The European Union took aim at the business model of gig economy companies like Uber and Deliveroo on Thursday with plans that could force them to reclassify their workers as fully-fledged employees.

The plan is an effort to sort out once and for all the employment status of millions of drivers and delivery people that the major platforms insist are self-employed.

The debate has clogged up courts across Europe for almost a decade, with judges handing out more than a hundred decisions across the bloc's 27 member states, with hundreds more still pending.

Those decisions can vary markedly, with Belgium on Wednesday denying a small group of Deliveroo workers the designation of employees, while Uber lost in court in non-EU Britain over its service in London.

"With more and more jobs created by digital labour platforms, we need to ensure decent working conditions for all those deriving their income from such work," EU executive vice president Margrethe Vestager said.

The proposal from the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, "will help (the) false self-employed working for platforms to correctly determine their employment status and enjoy all the social rights that come with that," she added.

The potential for an EU-wide redesignation of platform workers sent the share prices of Deliveroo and other platforms plummeting in recent days over fears that their business model was under threat.

If passed, the EU said its legislation could help reclassify about five million platform workers in the 27 member states as fully-fledged employees.

This will be because they met two of the EU's five criteria for redesignation, forcing some platforms to treat workers as if they were bricks and mortar firms with labour laws to obey.

The criteria include whether an app determines pay levels for workers, makes demands on appearance such as the use of uniforms and equipment or restricts a worker's ability to refuse jobs.

The designation would however be rebuttable by the platforms, with companies given a chance to prove the self-employment status of their workers, with national laws the final arbiter.

Platform firms broadly criticised the plan, saying it would cut work for those who prefer the flexibilty of self-employment.

Uber said the commission's proposal would put "thousands of jobs at risk, crippling small businesses in the wake of the pandemic and damaging vital services that consumers across Europe rely on".

Delivery Platform Europe, which represents Uber Eats and Deliveroo among others, said the rules would bring "negative outcomes for couriers themselves as well as for restaurants and customers".

- 'Dire consequences' -

The EU has little power over work-related policy in its member states and right now platforms face a wide array of national rules on their professional ties to workers.

In Spain, all workers who deliver food must be recognised as employees by the apps they use to work, a situation that pushed Deliveroo to abandon the market.

In other countries, courts have ordered apps to enter collective bargaining agreements even if the workers remain self-employed, a model that some platforms, including Uber, would prefer.

The tech companies lobbied hard against any EU-wide reclassification, citing a survey by Copenhagen Economics that 250,000 people would be forced out of delivery work if the decision applied for all.

They also worry that the criteria will be too vague, with different interpretations bringing on even more court cases instead of legal certainty.

Worker victories over gig economy giants
Paris (AFP) Dec 9, 2021 - A growing number of countries are taking on gig economy giants like Uber, Bolt and Deliveroo who routinely treat their workers as freelancers without normal labour rights.

The European Union is the latest to act with its executive tabling plans Thursday that could force them to treat their workers as fully-fledged employees.

- Spain leads way -

Spain was the first European Union to give delivery workers full rights in August, recognising them as salaried staff with all the rights and protections that entails, including sick leave and paid holidays.

The country's left-wing government acted after the supreme court ruled on the issue.

The British takeaway food delivery app Deliveroo pulled out of Spain in November, but other platforms have decided to adapt, or tried to get around the law.

- Italy strikes deal -

Italy struck a deal this month to improve conditions for riders for food delivery platforms.

Prosecutors in Milan initially began looking at working conditions for delivery riders following a spate of road accidents, and the probe was eventually extended throughout the country.

In February prosecutors told Foodinho-Glovo, Uber Eats Italy, Just Eat Italy and Deliveroo Italy that their riders cannot be considered as freelancers but as employees who receive wages.

Under the deal reached with the delivery platforms -- which makes no mention of riders' legal status -- they will have to spend millions improving conditions for their 20,000 riders.

Unions, however, are taking cases through the courts.

- Netherlands: court ruling -

A Dutch court ruled in September that Uber drivers in the Netherlands are effectively under an employment contract. Uber has appealed the ruling.

- Belgium: spoke in Uber's wheels -

Deliveroo claimed victory Wednesday after a Brussels labour court says its riders are not employees.

But at the end of November, an appeal court in the capital said a 2015 ban on private individuals offering taxi services also applies to apps like Uber.

- Uber's UK U-turn -

In March, following a ruling by Britain's High Court, Uber agreed to give its UK drivers workers' entitlements including holiday pay and a pension.

Its 70,000 drivers there will now earn at least the minimum wage when driving for the taxi app.

- US: Biden overturns Trump gig -

The Biden administration in May blocked a rule handed down under former US president Donald Trump that would have prevented gig workers from demanding a minimum wage or overtime.

The state of California voted in 2019 to recognise gig economy workers as employees but digital giants including Uber and Lyft refused to comply with the law.

Instead, they bankrolled a referendum that effectively overturned it. Under it, drivers and delivery riders remain independent contractors but are to be paid minimum wages and a contribution to healthcare and insurance.

- France: Uber, Deliveroo under cosh -

France's appeals court ruled in March 2020 the contract between Uber and its 28,000 drivers in France is an employment contract.

And Deliveroo and three former directors will appear in a Paris court next March charged with "not declaring a large number of jobs".

- Latin America -

Several parliaments in Latin America are weighing legislation to regulate the activities of the platforms, notably Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. However, nothing concrete has so far emerged.

- China: Didi under pressure -

In early December, the Chinese transport ministry called on China's version of Uber, Didi and other platforms to improve drivers' wages, breaks and working conditions.

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