"EU deal to reclassify gig workers as formal employees falls apart at the last minute" 22 Dec 2023

A hard-fought deal on a draft law designed to improve the conditions of millions of gig workers across the European Union unexpectedly fell apart on Friday morning during a meeting of ambassadors in Brussels.

The law, which took months to negotiate, is immediately thrown into disarray, raising doubts it will survive before the next elections to the European Parliament.

Under the proposed directive, self-employed workers of digital platforms like Uber and Deliveroo could be re-classified as formal employees – and therefore granted access to basic labour and social rights...

The change of status could affect up to 5.5 million of the 28 million gig workers currently active across the bloc...

The provisional agreement on the directive was reached last week between the  Parliament and the Council, which represents member states...

Ambassadors were supposed to...ratify the text that emerged from the negotiations. But during the behind-the-scenes meeting on Friday, a majority of countries...made it clear they would not support the outcome of the institutional talks, making it impossible to convene a vote and move it forward. The contentious file will now be passed to Belgium, set to take the reins of the Council's presidency on 1 January.

The legal presumption of an employment relationship (as opposed to self-employment) and the administrative burden were cited as some of the reasons for the opposition.

"[W]e do not have the necessary qualified majority to reach an agreement on this important file," said a spokesperson of the Spanish presidency...

"We have therefore decided not to submit the text to formal vote at COREPER (the ambassadors' meeting) today and pass it to the upcoming Belgian Presidency to continue the negotiations..."

A rejection at this stage of the legislative process is extremely rare and spells bad news for the directive...

A report released...by Corporate Europe Observatory found that companies like Uber, Deliveroo, Bolt and Wolt had rapidly increased their spending in Brussels to influence the shape of the law. These firms face the prospect of ballooning costs if the millions of gig workers using their platforms are re-classified as employees and given access to labour and social rights...