(Finance) – Jump for the second time in a row the political agreement on the new rules to protect riders and platform workers like Uber, Deliveroo and Glovo. This was announced by Belgium’s rotating EU presidency.
The ambassadors of the 27, gathered in Coreper II to give the green light to the agreement on the directive renegotiated on 8 February between the EU institutions, did not find the necessary qualified majority. France, Germany, Greece and Estonia, explain European sources, have announced their abstention, thus forming the necessary blocking minority among the 27. Italy, it is understood, voted in favor of the text.
Last February 8, (after the first stop last December) the white smoke of the EU institutions had arrived on the EU directive for platform workers, as the rapporteur of the text for the European Chamber, the MEP, had made known via Elisabetta Gualmini, member of the Pd. The objective of the directive is to ensure that riders and drivers and other workers of the new digital apps have their employment status recognised, thus avoiding cases of fictitious self-employment.
The new rules introduce a presumption of an employment relationship (as opposed to self-employment) which is triggered in the presence of elements indicating control and direction. LThe burden of proof will be on the platformwhich means that when the platform wants to rebut the presumption, it is up to it to demonstrate that the contractual relationship is not an employment relationship
The agreed text also introduces the first European rules on the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace: ensuring, for example, that a person cannot be fired on basis of a decision made by an algorithm or automated decision-making system.
Today, however, the new stop, awaiting further developments.