The ETUC is calling on national ministers to reject the proposal of the Czech presidency on the platform work directive.
The Czech proposal, which would weaken the directive, was rejected at COREPER last week following objections from eight member states.
However, the Czech presidency has still failed to respond to concerns about their proposal and is pressing ahead in putting a largely unchanged proposal which they will present again to COREPER on Wednesday before trying to secure the agreement of ministers at EPSCO on Thursday.
Their proposal would:
- Mean that workers would have to fulfil three of five conditions to be reclassified as a worker and access all associated rights;
- Enables Member States not to apply the presumption "if it is manifest that the presumption would be successfully rebutted";
- Limit the independence of genuinely self-employed workers.
The Council proposal is in contrast to the direction of the discussions within the European Parliament, with the EMPL Committee set to adopt a report on December 12.
ETUC Confederal Secretary Ludovic Voet said:
“Contrary to what the Czech presidency is trying to convince us – workers' rights matter. The Czech presidency has simply not listened to the concerns about their proposal which would weaken protections for precarious platform workers. Ministers should not pay attention to superficial changes and reject it again.
“The Commission’s proposal already places difficulties in the way of workers who want to gain employed status and the European Council should not hinder the procedure further. Improvements are still needed if this directive is going to end the scandal of bogus self-employment.”
