30 August 2023, Brussels – Industry representatives warn that a lack of pre-established EU-wide criteria on employment relationships in the Platform Workers Directive could be detrimental for small and medium-sized businesses and self-employed workers.
IRU, HOTREC and CEEMET – representing road transport operators, hospitality and metal, engineering, and technology-based industries – have called upon legislators to agree on upfront EU-wide criteria to determine the existence of an employment relationship in the Platform Workers Directive, as provided in the Council’s General Approach.
This EU-wide criteria should classify the relation as employment or self-employment from the onset – thus maintaining national appeal systems and allowing platforms to collaborate with genuine self-employed workers without receiving the status of employer when acting in compliance with specific national legislation or collective agreements.
“Any automatic reclassification of self-employed into employees needs to be avoided. This would lead to less flexibility for the genuine self-employed and possibly fewer people interested in working on platforms. Eventually, this would have a deteriorating effect in the hospitality sector, which already struggles with labour shortages,” concluded Marie Audren, Director General of HOTREC.