A statement by participant organisations in the platform workers’ movement in response to the EU Platform Work Directive agreement on 11 March. If your group would like to support this statement, send an e-mail with the organisation, website/social media and country to contacto@ridersxderechos.org.
Vous pouvez lire cette déclaration en français ici.
Puede leer esta declaración en español aquí.
After 4 years of fierce combat by a popular activism made up of collectives of platform workers and unions, we have achieved a historic victory. The Platform Workers Directive (PWD) was negotiated in the European institutions in trilogue, and was accepted in EPSCO, against most odds, after the unexpected U-turn of Greece and Estonia.
The PWD will force Member States to implement a presumption of employment in their national legislation for platform workers, in most cases misclassified as self-employees without any workers’ rights. This presumption will allow workers to have rights, such as set/fixed/guaranteed working hours, negotiated salary, paid sick leave, holidays, etc. Also unionising and collective bargaining to fight collectively will be possible. It will be up to companies to prove that workers are “self-employed”, according to the laws of each country. Until now, the burden of proof has fallen on workers, who have had to prove their false self-employed status in proceedings that could take years.
The directive also regulates algorithmic management, protecting workers against automated decisions by platforms as well as prohibiting automated surveillance of workers, among other digital protections. This measure takes on its full meaning when we know the scandal revealed by “Tracking Exposed”, in which it was shown that Glovo was spying on its workers, even when they were not using the application, and that the company was selling the data to third parties without their consent.
Our organisations have been fighting for years against fraud from platforms using the fake self-employed model. The Uberization model defended by these multimillionaire lobbies seeks to destroy the employment model and sabotage social dialogue.
In the last forum of Alternatives to Uberization held in Brussels in February, we insisted on the fact that it was not just about delivery people or passengers’ transport. It is also about chambermaids in hotels, domestic workers, clickworkers, cleaners, content moderators, but also teachers and psychologists. This model currently concerns a larger part of the working population and can potentially threaten any worker.
We celebrate in solidarity with the workers who will see improved working conditions, but remaining critical and cautious. The PWD is based on the legislation of each country, which opens the door to platform lobbies to influence and change the legislation in their favour, as they have already done in France, shown by the “Uber files” scandal. We encourage research journalists to keep us informed on how the lobbies will keep undermining our rights and democracies.
PWD does not set the punishment mechanisms for those who skip the law. Belgium and Spain are a sad but good example. In these two countries, there is legislation about presumption of employment and algorithmic transparency, but some companies are not complying with this mandate, and acting with total impunity. These legislations have so far not caused any change in the concrete lives of delivery people. We expect mechanisms to control and audit power over those companies.
Last but certainly not least, numerous companies, particularly those in the delivery sector, have experienced exponential growth by exploiting the labour of individuals in precarious situations. The text of the directive does not take into account the work carried out for years by workers often in an irregular/undocumented situation. We maintain that it is the responsibility of the legislator to regularize undocumented workers. It is imperative to set up regularization pathways for people who have risked (or even lost) their lives by working with the involvement of the companies that exploited them for years.
Thus, we welcome the much-anticipated presumption of employment and algorithmic management rights, but remain cautious about companies’ next steps in terms of legislation in each country, and remain critical of the lack of regulation regarding undocumented workers. Moreover, we are looking forward to seeing what is considered “platform work” and if some collectives are left behind, for example, content moderators or Amazon warehouse workers. If so, we will point this out.
We, as a transnational movement of workers’ collectives, unions, activists and researchers, will keep an eye on the implementation of the PWD and take action (in the streets and in the courts) against any circumvention of our rights by companies.
WHATEVER HAPPENS, THE FIGHT GOES ON
Signatures:
Riders x Derechos (Spain)
La Maison des Livreurs (Belgium)
Riders Collective (Austria)
Observatorio Trabajo, Algoritmo y Sociedad (Spain)
Lieferando Workers Collective Berlin (Germany)
Taxi Project (Spain)
Elite taxi (Spain)
Fuerza independiente y sindical de trabajadores (Fist) (Spain)
RiderXiDiritti (Italy)
Deliverance Milano (Italy)
Tourism, Entertainment and Service Workers’ Union (TEHIS) (Turkey)
Motor Courier Workers’ Association (MID) (Turkey)
Techworker Community Africa (Kenya)
Mladi plus (Slovenia)
DiPLab (France)
Organizacja związkowa Konfederacji Pracy zrzeszająca kurierów Pyszne.pl (Poland)
Las Kellys (Spain)
CGT Riders (Spain)
FO TPN by INV (France)
Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) (USA)
Weizenbaum-Institute (Germany)
Force Ouvrière TPN by INV (France)
English Language Students’ Union of Ireland (ELSU) (Ireland)
Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging (FNV)
Izquierda Sindical Sustriana (ISA) (Spain)
Printemps écologique – Fédération de Syndicats (France)
Content Moderators Union (Kenya)
Zentrale (Poland)
Superrr Lab (Germany)
Labor Tech Research Network (USA)
Be the first to comment