Debate: Fair working conditions, rights and social protection for platform workers - New forms of employment linked to digital development
Date: MONDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2021
Speaker: Kim Van Sparrentak
Political group: Verts/ALE
Country: Denmark
Language: NL

I will now continue in English. The verdict in the Netherlands adds to over 100 court cases across the EU, and with these court cases platform workers simply ask to be treated the same way as other workers, with the same social benefits and opportunities, and the cases have overwhelmingly been won by the platform workers. You might think that Uber, Glovo, Deliveroo and other platforms would then bury the hatchet, play nice and hire their workers. But instead they do everything to keep operating outside of the law or to even change the rules in their favour with workers paying the price. And in the long run we actually all risk paying the price because this business model undermines our social security system. Platform workers going to court are fighting an uphill battle against the platforms’ army of lawyers and resources, and that is why we, the lawmakers, need to step in, and that is why I am very pleased with this report because we give a clear mandate to the European Commission for strict rules and to once and for all tell these platforms how we protect their workers and that we have a model based on solidarity. That’s why I also really would like to thank my shadow co-rapporteurs and the rapporteur for the great cooperation while writing this report, because if we stand together we can really make a social Europe happen. So what do we want? We start by putting in place a presumption of employment relationship for platform workers. This may sound complicated but it simply means that it should be up to platforms to prove that someone is really an entrepreneur instead of the workers. And for me, it’s quite simple. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s likely a duck. So why give workers some basic rights rather than the full rights of an employee? It shouldn’t matter when you are cleaning someone’s house if you’ve been hired through a platform or an agency: you should have the same rights. And next it is important to clarify what distinguishes these platform workers from other workers and namely the fact that an algorithm dictates what happens. A Dutch judge explained today being subject to an algorithm is modern employers’ control. Workers are constantly tracked, monitored, evaluated and even fired by algorithms without even knowing why the algorithm assigns them certain tasks and what the price is actually based on, and as a result platform workers are under extreme stress. We need to protect workers against algorithmic management. Workers must be able to know that not only does an algorithm exist, but also how it assigns tasks and sets the prices. Important HR decisions should always be made by a person and not a computer. These issues are not sufficiently dealt with in the AIF and have to be addressed in the Directive on platform work. Colleagues, it is important that we have this legislation and when it comes to the future of work and the future of a social model this is one of the first battlegrounds; the outcome will be important for how we will regulate the labour market in the future.