(Finance) – The EU Council at the meeting of the ministers of employment, social policy, health and consumers approved the new provisional agreement with the European Parliament on rules to improve the working conditions of staff of digital platforms, such as Uber or Deliveroo. The green light comes after the agreement had returned to negotiated in February, due to the halt given in December by the States to the agreement reached previously.
The new rules concern 28 million workers based on 2022 data, and according to estimates by community institutions they will become 43 million by 2025. “This is the first EU legislative act that regulates algorithmic management in the workplace and establishes minimum European standards to improve working conditions millions of platform workers across the EU. The agreement confirmed today builds on the efforts of previous Council Presidencies and reaffirms the social dimension of the European Union,” he said Pierre-Yves DermagneBelgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Employment.
The agreement reached with Parliament ensures that workers are duly informed about the use of automated systems monitoring and decision-making regarding, among other things, their hiring, their working conditions and their earnings. It also prohibits the use of automated decision-making or monitoring systems for the processing of certain types of data personal of people who carry out work via the platform, such as biometric data or their emotional or psychological state. Human control and evaluation regarding the data are also guaranteed decisions automatedincluding the right to have such decisions explained and reviewed.