EU employment and social affairs ministers have confirmed the provisional agreement reached on 8 February 2024 between the Council’s presidency and the European Parliament’s negotiators on the platform work directive. This EU legal act aims to improve working conditions and regulate the use of algorithms by digital labour platforms.
The directive will make the use of algorithms in human resources management more transparent, ensuring that automated systems are monitored by qualified staff and that workers have the right to contest automated decisions. It will also help correctly determine the employment status of persons working for platforms, enabling them to benefit from any labour rights they are entitled to.
Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Economy and Employment, Pierre-Yves Dermagne, stated, “This is the first-ever piece of EU legislation to regulate algorithmic management in the workplace and to set EU minimum standards to improve working conditions for millions of platform workers across the EU. The agreement confirmed today builds on the efforts of previous Council presidencies and reaffirms the social dimension of the European Union.”
The agreed text strikes a balance between respecting national labour systems and ensuring minimum standards of protection for the more than 28 million persons working in digital labour platforms across the EU. The main compromise elements revolve around a legal presumption which will help determine the correct employment status of persons working in digital platforms.
The agreement reached with the Parliament ensures that workers are duly informed about the use of automated monitoring and decision-making systems regarding their recruitment, their working conditions, and their earnings, among other things. It also bans the use of automated monitoring or decision-making systems for the processing of certain types of personal data of persons performing platform work, such as biometric data or their emotional or psychological state.
Human oversight and evaluation are also guaranteed as regards automated decisions, including the right to have those decisions explained and reviewed.
The text of the agreement will now be finalised in all the official languages and formally adopted by both institutions. After the formal steps of the adoption have been completed, member states will have two years to incorporate the provisions of the directive into their national legislation.
