The countries of the European Union officially adopted the hard-fought agreement on better protection of platform workers on Monday. Belgium and the other Member States have two years to transpose the directive into national law. The Platform Work Directive should improve the working conditions of the more than 28 million people in Europe who work for digital labor platforms such as Uber, Deliveroo or Bolt.
The algorithms on the basis of which work is organized must become more transparent. Qualified flesh-and-blood personnel will monitor the automated systems, and the platform workers themselves will have the right to challenge automated decisions.
The Member States and the European Parliament reached a political agreement on the directive in February this year, under the Belgian presidency of the Council. The legal presumption as to whether a platform worker should be regarded as self-employed or as an employee will be regulated at national level. When transposing the directive into national legislation, Member States will have to find a way in which this presumption is activated on the basis of concrete indications of guidance – or not at all – by a superior.
It is now up to the Council and the European Parliament to sign the directive. The directive will enter into force as soon as it appears in the official Official Journal of the EU. The Member States then have two years to implement the new rules.