INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
EU Parliament adopts the Electronic Platform Work Directive (the GIG Economy Directive).
The European Parliament definitively approved the new rules aiming to improve the working conditions of electronic platforms’ workers. The new rules, agreed on by the EU Parliament and the EU Council in February and adopted with 554 votes in favour, 56 votes against and 24 abstentions, aim to ensure that electronic platforms’ workers have their employment status classified correctly and to correct bogus self-employment. They also regulate, for the first time ever in the EU, the use of algorithms in the workplace.
The new law introduces a presumption of an employment relationship (as opposed to self-employment) that is triggered when facts indicating control and direction are present, according to national law and collective agreements, and taking into account EU case law.
The directive obliges EU countries to establish a rebuttable legal presumption of employment at national level, aiming to correct the imbalance of power between the digital labour platform and the person performing platform work. The burden of proof lies with the platform, meaning that it is up to the platform to prove that there is no employment relationship.
New rules on algorithmic management are also provided. The new rules ensure that a person performing platform work cannot be fired or dismissed based on a decision taken by an algorithm or an automated decision-making system. Instead, digital labour platforms must ensure human oversight on important decisions that directly affect the persons performing platform work.
Transparency and data protection rights are further enforced. The directive introduces rules that protect platform workers’ data more robustly. Digital labour platforms will be forbidden from processing certain types of personal data, such as data on someone’s emotional or psychological state and personal beliefs.
The agreed text will now have to be formally adopted by the Council, too. After its publication in the Official Journal of the EU, member states will have two years to incorporate the provisions of the directive into their national legislation.
The new law introduces a presumption of an employment relationship (as opposed to self-employment) that is triggered when facts indicating control and direction are present, according to national law and collective agreements, and taking into account EU case law.
The directive obliges EU countries to establish a rebuttable legal presumption of employment at national level, aiming to correct the imbalance of power between the digital labour platform and the person performing platform work. The burden of proof lies with the platform, meaning that it is up to the platform to prove that there is no employment relationship.
New rules on algorithmic management are also provided. The new rules ensure that a person performing platform work cannot be fired or dismissed based on a decision taken by an algorithm or an automated decision-making system. Instead, digital labour platforms must ensure human oversight on important decisions that directly affect the persons performing platform work.
Transparency and data protection rights are further enforced. The directive introduces rules that protect platform workers’ data more robustly. Digital labour platforms will be forbidden from processing certain types of personal data, such as data on someone’s emotional or psychological state and personal beliefs.
The agreed text will now have to be formally adopted by the Council, too. After its publication in the Official Journal of the EU, member states will have two years to incorporate the provisions of the directive into their national legislation.
