16 Amendments of Elena KOUNTOURA related to 2021/0414(COD)
Amendment 22 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 4
Recital 4
(4) Digitalisation is changing the world of work, improving productivity and enhancing flexibilityenhancing flexibility (whether desired or imposed), while also carrying some risks for employment and working conditions, for the health and safety of workers and for the protection of the fundamental right to privacy, tax law, and labour law in general. Algorithm-based technologies, including automated monitoring and decision-making systems, have enabled the emergence and growth of digital labour platforms. However, the architecture or design of the business model of digital labour platforms, particularly in the area of transport, has adverse consequences for workers and is often responsible for bad working conditions, the circumvention of labour law, greater insecurity, and the endangering and exploitation of workers.
Amendment 32 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 5 a (new)
Recital 5 a (new)
5a. In order to ensure their safety at work, digital platform workers in the transport and logistics sector should have appropriate working and safety equipment provided (particularly for deliverers on bicycles, mopeds and motorcycles), as well as vehicles in good working order and the necessary training, in line with their status.
Amendment 34 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 5 b (new)
Recital 5 b (new)
5b. In order to ensure the safety of workers, digital platforms should, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679, communicate the identity of the clients making use of the services offered by the platform, so that drivers, and particularly female drivers, and ride- hailing drivers are aware of the identity of the people they are carrying and so that couriers, and particular female couriers, on bicycles know who they are going to deliver meals to.
Amendment 36 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 6
Recital 6
(6) Platform work can provide opportunities for accessing the labour market more easily, gaining additional income through a secondary activity or enjoying somrelative flexibility in the organisation of working time. At the same time, platform work brings challenges, as it candigital platforms do not comply with European or national legislation and force their workers to work fraudulently as self-employed workers, circumventing labour law, seeking to blur the boundaries betweenof the employment relationship and self- employed activity, anenabling employers to avoid their responsibilities tof employers and workers. Misclassification of the employment status has serious consequences for the persons affected, as it is likely to restricts access to existing labour and social rights. It also leads tohas consequences for all workers, since work via a platform in its current form leads to the unravelling, in the long term, of all the social protections and labour law and downgrades them. It also leads to the exploitation of workers, social dumping, an uneven playing field with respect to businesses that classify their workers correctly, and it has implications for Member States’ industrial relations systems, their tax base and the coverage and sustainability of their social protection systems. While such challenges are broader than platform work, they are particularly acute and pressing in the platform economy, especially for those working in the transport sector. This is partly because the platforms circumvent labour law and tax law, and therefore benefit from unfair and illegally advantageous conditions compared with traditional businesses that comply with the law. In addition, the fact that the platforms do not comply with the regulations in force that are specific to their area of business, particularly in the passenger transport sector, also constitutes unfair competition. In addition, transport jobs are often strenuous occupations, and the demanding nature of the work is made greater by misclassification, the absence of predictable and transparent rules, and the absence of independent dialogue between the platforms and the trade unions on labour matters.
Amendment 57 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 18 a (new)
Recital 18 a (new)
18a. When establishing or introducing practical arrangements for information, consultation, negotiation or dialogue on labour matters, employers and the workers’ representatives should work in a spirit of cooperation and with due regard for their reciprocal rights and obligations, making joint efforts to improve working conditions and workers’ rights. Digital labour platforms will ensure, together with the trade unions, that elections for workers’ representatives comply with fundamental rights and freedoms and are in line with applicable national law and practices.
Amendment 64 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 23
Recital 23
(23) Ensuring correct determination of the employment status should not prevent the improvement of working conditions of genuine self-employed persons performing platform work. Where a digital labour platform decides – on a purely voluntary basis or in agreement with the persons concerned – to pay for social protection, accident insurance or other forms of insurance, training measures or similar benefits to self-employed persons working Furthermore, workers are either employees or self-employed. The creation of a third status, which would be detrimental to transport workers, enabling the digital platform to benefit from the advantages of employer status withrough that platform, those benefits as such should not be regarded as determining elements indicating the existence of an employment relationshipt assuming the corresponding obligations, is in no way relevant and should under no circumstances be opened up as a possibility by this Directive.
Amendment 68 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 24
Recital 24
(24) When digital labour platforms control certain elements of the performance of work, they act like employers in an employment relationship. Direction and control, or l, since that is an indication that the activity performed by the worker is an integral part of the activity of the platform. Legal subordination, is an essential element of the definition of an employment relationship in the Member States and in the case-law of the Court of Justice. Therefore contractual relationships in which digital labour platforms exert a certain level of control over certain elements ofcontrol or supervise the performance of work should be deemed, by virtue of a legal presumption, to be an employment relationship between the platform and the person performing platform work through it. As a result, that person should be classified ais a worker having all the rights and obligations in accordance with that status, as laid down in national and Union law, and collective agreements and practice. The legal presumption should apply in all relevant adminiof employee strative and legal proceedings and should benefit the person performing platform work. Authorities in charge of verifying the compliance with or enforcing relevant legislation, such as labour inspectorates, social protection bodies or tax authorities, should also be able to rely on that presumption. Member States should put us should be generally applicable and should benefit all persons performing place a national framework to reduce litigation and increase legal certaintytform work.
Amendment 75 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 30 a (new)
Recital 30 a (new)
30a. The use of algorithmic scheduling systems heightens the use of precarious, short shifts and unstable and unpredictable schedules. Algorithmic direction, evaluation, and discipline intensify work effort by increasing monitoring, control and supervision of work, raising the pace required from workers, minimising gaps in workflow and extending work activity beyond the conventional workplace and working hours. These algorithmic systems are present on all digital labour platforms and form part of their business model in order to align the service they supply with clients’ demands. However, workers and their representatives often only have a low degree of visibility of or control over these algorithmic systems, even though the systems organise work and impact working conditions. This is particularly true for freight transport and delivery services.
Amendment 79 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 42
Recital 42
(42) Platforms that are active in the transport, delivery or logistics sectors are companies like any other and must comply with the regulations and collective agreements in force in the relevant sectors. Information on the number of persons performing platform work through digital labour platforms on a regular basis, their contractual or employment status and the general terms and conditions applicable to those contractual relationships is essential to support labour inspectorates, social protection bodies and other relevant authorities in correctly determining the employment status of persons performing platform work and in ensuring compliance with legal obligations as well as representatives of persons performing platform work in the exercise of their representative functions and should therefore be made accessible to them. Those authorities and representatives should also have the right to ask digital labour platforms for additional clarifications and details, such as basic data on working conditions regarding working time and remuneration. Digital labour platforms must be included in the public register of companies, and the relevant information must be included for all digital labour platforms operating in the country, in order to ensure fair competition between them. This information should include, among other elements, information on the number of workers and the company’s status and turnover.
Amendment 85 #
Proposal for a directive
Article premier – paragraph 1
Article premier – paragraph 1
1. The purpose of this Directive is to improve the working conditions of persons performing platform work by ensuring correct determination of their employment status in order to guarantee their rights, by promoting transparency, fairness and accountability in algorithmic management in platform work and by improving transparency in platform work, including in cross-border situations, while supporting the conditions for the sustainable growth of digital labour platforms in the Union.
Amendment 88 #
Proposal for a directive
Article premier – paragraph 3
Article premier – paragraph 3
3. This Directive applies to digital labour platforms organising platform work performed in the Union, irrespective of their place of establishment and irrespective of the law otherwise applicableof the company or the client. The digital labour platform must comply with the legislation applicable in the country where the service is provided in order to guarantee equal treatment for workers and companies.
Amendment 100 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 2 a (new)
Article 3 – paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Digital labour platforms exerting the prerogatives of employers, such as supervision, organisation, control of work or sanctions, are companies and shall comply with the corresponding employers’ obligations under national law and collective agreements applicable in the sector of activity, and in particular with regard to labour law, tax law, the financing of social protection and responsibility for health and safety. Platform workers shall fully enjoy employee status in line with national law and sectoral collective agreements, including the right to join a trade union, to organise and to engage in collective bargaining.
Amendment 171 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 7 – paragraph 1
Article 7 – paragraph 1
1. Member States shall ensure that digital labour platforms regularly mall decisions that have an impact on working conditor and evaluate the impact of individual decisions taken or supported by automated monitoring and decision-making systems, as referred to in Article 6(1), on working conditions. ions, health and safety and decisions to suspend accounts shall not be taken by automated or semi-automated monitoring and decision-making systems and that reasons may be given for the decisions, in line with national law and collective agreements. Member States shall ensure that workers, through their representatives, have a right of co- decision in respect of the algorithm systems, and that there is human intervention and human supervision of all the decisions that have an impact on working conditions (such as the organisation of work, working time, remuneration and promotion), especially for important decisions such as disciplinary measures or dismissal.
Amendment 179 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 9 – paragraph 1
Article 9 – paragraph 1
1. Without prejudice to the rights and obligations under Directive 2002/14/EC, Member States shall ensure information and consultation of platform workers’ representatives or, where there are no such representatives, of the platform workers concerned by digital labour platforms, on decisions likely to lead to the introduction of or substantial changes in the use of automated monitoring and decision-making systems referred to in Article 6(1), in accordance with this Article. Workers’ rights to information and to consultation, access to information for representatives and the competent authorities, and access to evidence should be granted irrespective of whether the algorithm is managed by the digital labour platform or by a sub- contracted service provider which sells its management services to the platform. Moreover, the labour inspectorate must have access to all the contents of the algorithm so that it may scrutinise the algorithmic management criteria.
Amendment 181 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 9 – paragraph 1 a (new)
Article 9 – paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Persons performing platform work shall be granted the right to data portability, including portability of reputational data, or the right not to transfer those data if they do not wish to, as well as the right to rectification, the right to erasure and the right to be forgotten. Digital labour platforms shall make their reputation systems interoperable to ensure that such data transfers may be carried out.
Amendment 185 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 12 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Article 12 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
1. Where labour, social protection and other relevant authorities exercise their functions in ensuring compliance with legal obligations applicable to the employment status of persons performing platform work and where the representatives of persons performing platform work exercise their representative functions, Member States shall ensure that digital labour platforms make the following information available to them, irrespective of the country in which the platform is established: