Negotiators from the European Commission, Council and Parliament struck a deal on the Platform Work Directive. íthis is already the second time, that the EU institutions have settled on a provisional agreement in three-way negotiations, known as trilogues. It comes just time as digital platform economy is growing quickly, Over 28 million people in the EU work through one (or more) digital labour platforms. In 2025, that number is expected to reach 43 million people.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, platform work gathered pace and started to go mainstream, partly thanks to an increase in food and grocery deliveries. It is becoming an engine for innovation and employment growth.
Platform work comes in many shapes and sizes, sometimes it’s also called the ‘gig economy’. While the growth of digital platforms has benefitted both businesses and consumers, it has led to the development of a grey zone for many workers when it comes to their employment status.
Currently, the majority of the EU’s platform workers, including taxi drivers, domestic workers and food delivery drivers, are formally self-employed. Nevertheless, a number of them have to abide by many of the same rules and restrictions as an employed worker.
This indicates that they are in fact in an employment relationship and should therefore enjoy the labour rights and social protection afforded to employees under national and EU law.
Improving their access to labour rights and social protection would mean also improving the overall quality of the work offered and the employment terms for workers involved in platform work.
This would mean for example that they would have access to sick pay options, unemployment benefits or income support schemes.
While labour laws apply to platform workers who are employees, many platform workers are – at least formally – self-employed. Courts anywhere in the EU decide on the employment status of platform workers on a case-by-case basis.
While the growth of digital platforms has benefitted both businesses and consumers, it has led to the development of a grey zone for many platform workers when it comes to their employment status. According to the Commission, around 5.5 million workers currently classified as self-employed are in a de facto employment relationship with digital platforms and should therefore be entitled to the same labour and social rights granted to employees under EU law.
Moreover, the use of algorithms in platform work has raised questions about the processing of workers’ data and the transparency and accountability of decision-making.
Member states have different approaches to platform work. National responses to platform work are diverse and are developing unevenly across Europe, national legislation has mostly been adopted in specific sectors, e.g. in the ride-hailing services and/or in the food delivery services sectors.
The new rules would address cases of misclassification of platform workers and ease the way for such workers to be reclassified as employees, guaranteeing easier access to their rights as employees under EU law.
Workers would be legally presumed to be employees of a digital platform (as opposed to self-employed) if their relationship with the platform fulfils at least two out of five indicators set out in the directive.
These indicators include:
- upper limits on the amount of money workers can receive
– supervision of their performance, including by electronic means
– control over the distribution or allocation of tasks
– control over working conditions and restrictions on choosing working hours
– restrictions on their freedom to organise their work and rules on their appearance or conduct - The Parliament insisted on Thursday that a new clause be included whereby the European Commission would ensure legal presumptions have indeed been put in place in national systems.
It also deletes any reference to the ‘French derogation’, which would significantly curb the legal presumption’s application in favour of national law.
Wording was also tweaked at the margins to clarify that the presumption could not be applied to tax, criminal or social security proceedings – to accommodate for different definitions of a worker from one type of law to another. - According to the agreed text, member states may add further indicators to this list as a matter of national law.
