EU presidency: Provisional agreement on Platform Work Directive
In Strasbourg, the European Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the Platform Work Directive. The European Parliament and member states must still approve the agreement. "We hope that this can be a first step towards better protection of platform workers".
Digital platform work is a relatively new form of employment in which an online platform, such as a website or app, links a customer's service request with the provision of paid work by an individual.
The Platform Work Directive targets cases of misclassification of platform workers and facilitates their reclassification as workers, giving them easier access to their rights as workers under EU law.
The agreement also includes provisions to protect platform workers' data and increase transparency on using algorithms for decision-making in the workplace.
France's turn
Friday, the agreement will be presented to the member states for the first time. According to MEP Sara Matthieu, it is now France's turn. "If they agree now, the rules will come into force in 2026," she says.
In the meantime, Matthieu believes that great strides have been made towards ending the arbitrariness of the algorithms that control platform workers.
If the law comes into force, the decision to fire should always be taken by a person, not an algorithm
"For example, our proposals to ban emotion recognition and sabotage union action through surveillance have been accepted. If the law comes into force, the decision to fire should always be taken by a person, not an algorithm. There should also be transparency about the price of a job and how it is determined".
Nevertheless, according to Matthieu, these rules represent a world first for comprehensive rules on management by algorithms, "and thus a blueprint for rules on artificial intelligence and work that we need for the entire labour market".
© Victor Joly/ABACAPRESS.COM
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