Work must pay and should be done under fair conditions. That
accounts for all workers: at the office, in factories and for
digital platform workers such as Uber, Deliveroo and alike. This
will be the message of the EPP Group during the debate on the
rights of platform workers tonight. “Digital platforms offer
great potential for our future economy and played a key role
during the COVID-19 lockdowns, helping other businesses to stay
open. However, innovation can never be an excuse for
mismanagement or exploitation”, said Dennis Radtke MEP, EPP Group
Spokesman on Social Affairs.
“New ways of doing business should not lead to new, more
precarious working conditions. Misclassification of the status of
workers often leads to unfair and undesirable situations. We
simply cannot classify people as ‘self-employed’ if they lack
autonomy and do not have the means to be self-employed. We also
don't want a new so-called ‘third status’ of workers, as this
will only create more confusion. Someone is either an employee or
self-employed, there is nothing in between”, Radtke continued.
“We need to tackle the misclassification of platform workers, and
provide the appropriate tools for it. One of the tools must be
the rebuttable presumption of an employment status in combination
with the reversal of the burden of proof. In the case of a
dispute, where the platform worker believes themselves to be
misclassified, it is for the platforms to prove that the worker
is in fact self-employed and not an employee. Of course, there
are certain conditions that have to apply to prevent possible
misuse of the presumption. Besides, not all platform workers want
to be employees, some enjoy the freedoms of being self-employed
and they will continue to do so. But everyone who works as an
employee must be granted the rights of an employee. We urge the
European Commission to come up with a legislative proposal to
ensure these fair rights and working conditions for platform
workers as soon as possible", Radtke concluded.
