Battling the Gig Economy: Update

As we explained in a recent article, in December 2023, after two years of negotiations, the European Parliament and the Council hammered out a provisional agreement on a proposed directive to improve the working conditions of gig economy workers, the so-called ‘Platform Workers Directive’. However, this was met by protests by a range of stakeholders…

On 8 February 2024, the European Parliament and the Council reached a new provisional deal on the draft law to address the concerns of Member States and Big Tech companies.

The compromise solution proposed by the Belgian presidency of the EU Council abandons harmonised conditions for triggering the legal presumption of employment in the text of the Directive, which was a tough pill to swallow for many Member States.

It remzins to be seen whether the watering down of the Platform Directive will be enough to convince Member States to ultimately back the proposition. As reported by Euronews, the Move EU lobbying group representing Uber, Bolt, and Free Now has already called for rejecting the provisional agreement altogether.

For more details about the Platform Workers Directive and updates, contact Bartosz Jankowski