Jorge Garcia Herrero’s Post

🇬🇧 🚴♂️ The recent €5M fine against Glovo, imposed by the Italian Data Protection Authority (The Italian Data Protection Authority), is a significant step in the ongoing fight for workers' rights. This decision marks a key moment in protecting the #privacy and autonomy of workers within the gig economy, setting a powerful precedent. Thank you European Digital Rights for highlighting this important development + mentioning the work of Claudio Agosti (Hermes Center) and Gaetano Priori on behalf of Reversing.works 🙏 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dukv_HqT *The article also highlights how this action could encourage other countries' organizations to follow our example and advocate for their own Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) to take similar action against companies like Glovo. The collective push for stronger worker protections is essential for shaping the future of the #gigeconomy! #HermesCenter #digitalrightsarehumanrights

EU Sets New Standards for Digital Platform Workers The European Union has reached a provisional agreement on new regulations for digital platform workers, marking a significant step towards better working conditions and algorithmic transparency. Initiated by the European Commission in December 2021, these rules target workers on platforms like Uber, Deliveroo, and Glovo, who, while often classified as self-employed, will now enjoy greater transparency and control over the use of algorithms in personnel management. This legislation, the first in the EU to regulate algorithmic governance in the workplace, aims to protect over 28 million platform workers across the EU by establishing minimum standards of protection and ensuring the right to challenge automated decisions. The agreement includes a legal presumption to help determine the employment status of digital platform workers, a measure expected to provide clarity and security for millions. Despite some opposition and abstentions from countries like Germany, France, Greece, and Estonia during the voting process, the compromise reflects a strong pro-worker stance, enhancing algorithmic transparency and setting penalties for non-compliance. Once the agreement text is finalized and adopted by both the European Parliament and the Council, member states will have two years to implement the directive into national law. This legislative move represents a balance between respecting national labor laws and setting EU-wide standards to safeguard digital platform workers.

Last week the European Parliament approved a refined version of the long-anticipated Platform Work Directive! 🎉 💡 Initially proposed by the European Commission in February 2022, the PW Directive aims to improve working conditions for almost 40 mln platform workers in the #gigeconomy and #sharingeconomy. It also regulates, for the first time ever in the EU (❗), the use of #algorithms in the workplace created by #digitalplatforms such as Uber, Deliveroo, and Lyft. ⏳ After 2 years of cumbersome legislative processes, the directive passed with 554 votes in favour and 56 votes against. Its original (and widely criticised) version aimed to introduce an automatic presumption of employment, facing backlash for potentially limiting platform workers' flexibility. The approved version obliges member states to establish a rebuttable legal presumption of employment at the national level, aiming to correct the #powerimbalance between platforms and their workers. What will change? 🔹 The Directive introduces a presumption of an #employment relationship to correct false #selfemployment. The burden of proof lies with the platform, meaning that it is up to the platform to prove that there is no employment relationship. 🔹 Platform workers cannot be fired or dismissed based on a decision taken by an algorithm or an automated decision-making system. 🔹 Platforms will be forbidden from processing certain types of #personaldata, including data on someone’s emotional or psychological state and personal beliefs. 📅 Next steps The agreed text will now have to be formally adopted by the Council of the European Union. After its publication in the Official Journal of the EU, member states will have 2 years to implement the directive into their national legislation. I’m keen to see whether the PW Directive will trigger a broader consideration of how platforms structure their labour force globally. 🌐 #platformworkers #digitalplatforms #sharingeconomy #gigeconomy #algorithms #labourlaw #EUlaw

Platform Work: The European Trade Union Institute, Brussel. - The EU Platform Work Directive. What’s new, what’s missing, what’s next https://lnkd.in/ecRHm2Zg (onderaan). This policy brief examines the main innovations introduced by the Directive, assesses its contribution to the EU acquis and identifies the main weaknesses and potential threats to its effectiveness that would need to be addressed during the two-year implemen-tation period following its formal adoption. It took almost a full EU legislature to conceive, deve-lop and ultimately adopt the EU Directive on Platform Work. Following social dialogue consultations, the Commission presented a legislative proposal in December 2021, with two fundamental principles. First, novel instruments were deemed necessary to avoid the common risk of misclassification of platform workers. The latter indeed tend to be engaged on the basis of (bogus) self-employment models. Typically, this deprives them of labour protections and lays them open to precariousness and vulnerability. Second, the integration of automated monitoring and automated decision-making systems (ADMS) into the workplace was considered a source of new risks for workers. Such data-driven infrastructures both amplify and obfuscate traditional managerial prero-gatives. Digital platforms have adopted, tested and fine-tuned practices of constant surveillance, capricious management, unpredictable scheduling and opaque discipline. Such an augmentation of employer powers is a key legal challenge, as it replaces conventional com-mand-and-control approaches with less visible and more oblique prerogatives. This displaces the more familiar controlling factors and legal guardrails. - Inevitable, vulnerable, unprofitable: an inquiry into food delivery platforms in Europe https://lnkd.in/ehApfXAG Based on a scrutiny of business reports in conjunc-tion with secondary research, this ETUI Working Paper maps and comparatively analyses three international operating platforms – Delivery Hero, as one of the largest platforms; Just Eat Takeaway; and the much smaller Deliveroo. In respect of each one of these, food delivery service has an almost inevitable embeddedness in urban economies today. Platforms’ business model is partly based on network effects, meaning that the value of the food delivery service increases when more restaurants are offering food, more couriers are engaged in the delivery job and more customers are using the service. Those network effects are vulnerable as they can be challenged by courier associations and trade unions. Furthermore, platforms are under-delivering by tra-ditional business benchmarks and they are unprofi-table up to now, although performance indicators show progress over time. Funding from shareholder equity or debt financing is nevertheless still vital in today’s changed investment climate, but the question is to what extent the latter will remain patient over the losses. .

🛑❗️PUBLICATION ALERT🛑❗️ In today’s edition of ‘pleased to announce’…. my latest article ‘Algorithmic management of platform workers: An examination of the Canadian and European approaches to Regulation’ has been published in the European Labour Law Journal. It compares and contrasts the recently adopted EU Plaform Work Directive with Ontario’s Digital Platform Workers Rights Act 2022. Algorithmic management in simple terms refers to a management system where workers are evaluated, tracked and managed through algorithms as opposed to human managers. Digital platform like Uber, Lyft and Doordash use this method to exercise indirect control over platform users. Like any other management system, it has its pros and cons. Research on its specific impact on platform users is still evolving but there is enough to suggest that some form of regulation is needed, particularly to protect the most vulnerable users from exploitation. Regulators in the EU and Canada have taken steps in this regard. The goals of regulation are for the most part similar, but their methods are slightly different. The EU approach in my view is more comprehensive and generalist than Ontario’s approach which is more subject-specific. #platformwork #Uber #Lyft #Doordash #legislation #EU #Canada

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐃𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐥! In recent years, platforms have developed rapidly. The workers who provide these services (such as delivery drivers and chauffeurs) are often wrongfully self-employed. In several EU countries, false self-employment is seen as a problem that needs to be addressed. Therefore, an agreement was recently reached on a Platform Work Directive. The aim of this directive is to improve working conditions in platform work and to counter false self-employment. Please refer to our article for the main takeaways from the agreement. https://lnkd.in/gtHP2w-7

🚨 BREAKING ON PLATFORM WORK🚨 The EU Council has officially given its final approval to the EU Platform Work Directive! This marks the last step before the Directive enters into force, offering platform workers a rebuttable presumption of employment and ensuring meaningful information and consultation rights on algorithmic management tools for unions and worker representatives. Importantly, much of the Directive's protection also extends to self-employed platform workers. If you're unfamiliar with EU Directives and how they operate, I’ve written a summary of the new Platform Work Directive for an international audience, which you can read here: https://lnkd.in/dJVcqBRn. For a deeper dive into the Directive’s implications, Antonio Aloisi and I discussed its potential to reshape platform worker rights in Europe in this piece: https://lnkd.in/dmgdmtXi This is a pivotal moment for platform work across Europe, and it’s just the beginning of much-needed reform to protect workers in the gig economy. #PlatformWork #GigEconomy #WorkersRights #EUdirective #FutureOfWork

Glovo Faces Major Lawsuit in Spain Spain's Public Prosecutor has filed a lawsuit against the food and grocery delivery company Glovo, accusing it of violating workers' rights. The company allegedly intentionally misclassified its couriers as self-employed to avoid offering them employment contracts and social benefits, giving it an unfair advantage over competitors. Labor inspections have revealed over 17,000 falsely classified self-employed workers at Glovo. As a result, the company has already been fined and has paid €253 million in penalties and social security claims. More than a dozen Glovo couriers have testified in court, with many stating that a fixed salary and proper labor rights are far more preferable than the instability of freelance work and the lack of social protections. Some couriers shared stories of working all day only to earn €30 due to a lack of orders. Glovo’s legal team argues that the company has since reformed its business model to comply with self-employment regulations. Still, they have not provided concrete evidence to support these claims. Glovo's founder, Oscar Pierre, is set to testify in court on December 3rd.

This week, there are some important regulatory developments for entrepreneurs in the EU. Here, we list four rules that might be interesting to you: 🚲 The Platform Work Directive: the provisional agreement of the platform work directive was reached between the Council’s presidency and the European Parliament’s negotiators. The directive introduces two key improvements: it helps determine the correct employment status of people working for digital platforms, and regulates the use of algorithm systems in the workplace. Determining the correct employment status is crucial for platform workers, for the reason that it determines whether they are entitled to certain rights under applicable labour laws. The text of the agreement will now be finalised in all the official languages and formally adopted by both institutions. For more information of rules related to platform workers in the EU, you can refer to the following link: https://lnkd.in/dkqPJPRC 👗The Green Claims Directive: Parliament adopted its first reading position of the green claims directive. The directive will prevent companies from making false environmental marketing claims (such as zero pollution, bio, and less waste) by requiring to obtain verification from a third party before they make such claims. The directive is neither official nor final yet. It will now have to be followed up by the new Parliament after the European elections. 💻 The Artificial Intelligence Act: the Artificial Intelligence Act is finally approved by Parliament. The Act adopts a risk-based approach, where it prohibits AI with highest risk (detrimental to citizen’s fundamental rights), imposes strict obligations to AI with high risk, and requires general-purpose AI to comply with transparency obligations. At the same time, regulatory sandbox will be available to SMEs and startups to boost innovation. The Act is still subject to a final lawyer-linguist check and formal endorsement of the Council, but it is already very close to entering into force. ⚓ EU Custom Code: Parliament adopts its first reading position on major reform of EU Customs Code. The reform is a response to the prevailing e-commerce platforms. In the new regulation, bigger responsibility will be placed on platform. The new regulation will also introduce digital solution to help custom authorities to work more efficiently. The new rule is neither official nor final yet. It will now have to be followed up by the new Parliament after the European elections.

Platform working now has its own European set of rules After more than 2 years of negotiations among EU officials, the final text of the new EU platform work directive has been agreed and approved by the European Parliament. This is the first piece of legislation in the world designed to address issues associated with platform work, a very hot trend the importance of which is growing rapidly. There are over 28 million platform workers in the EU, and their legal status has been unclear. The new EU directive is meant to clarify this. According to the EU’s definition “platform work is a form of employment in which organisations or individuals use an online platform to access other organisations or individuals to solve specific problems or to provide specific services in exchange for payment”. To bring this closer to readers: think Uber and Foodora as examples. Most EU platform workers are formally self-employed. Still, they are required by the digital platform employing them to abide by corporate standards, as if they were employees. EU legislators concluded, platform workers should also have certain labour and social protection rights, just like “ordinary” employees. The freshly adopted EU directive makes platform workers employees by default. If the platform employing them thinks otherwise, it is the platform that will need to prove that its platform worker is truly self-employed. The digital platforms will not be able to process certain kinds of personal data according to the directive, such as private conversations, potential trade union activity, etc.  Ensuring human oversight on important decisions that directly affect platform workers will be also essential.   And these are just a couple of issues addressed in the EU directive and designed to protect platform workers. The platform work EU directive was passed on 24 April 2024, and EU member states have 2 years to implement locally. For further information about this topic, please contact our experts, Nándor Beck (beckn@vjt-partners.com) and András Lovretity (lovretitya@vjt-partners.com). #platforms #EU #platformwork #directive #VJTandPartners