IR Notes

The European Commission is due to present an initiative concerning the working conditions of platform workers by the end of the year, following the two consultation phases involving European social partners. It will now have to take account of the new report published by the European Parliament, which has just set out its position on this subject. In a resolution on platform workers, passed on 16 September, Parliament did not argue in favour of platform workers being reclassified across the board as “workers”. However, the report prepared by French MEP Sylvie Brunet (Renew) and adopted by an overwhelming majority (524 for, 39 against) invites the Commission to introduce “a rebuttable presumption of an employment relationship (….) [in the case of] platform workers in combination with the reversal of the burden of proof” into its forthcoming proposal.  MEPs believe that “whenever platform workers dispute the classification of their employment status in legal proceedings before a court or administrative body (…), it is for the party who is claimed to be the employer to prove that there is no employment relationship”. However, MEPS warn that this presumption “must not lead to an automatic classification of all platform workers as workers”. This rebuttable presumption therefore “ensures that workers who are genuinely self-employed are able to remain so and can continue to access work through platforms”. MEPs are also abandoning any idea of an intermediate status between employment and self-employment: “establishing a new EU so-called ‘third status’ (…) cannot be considered, as it would not help to solve the current problems and risks further blurring already confused concepts”. This approach is supported by the European Trade Union Confederation (see press release).
In addition to this issue of reclassifying the employment relationship, the resolution also tackles those of: 1) equal treatment with “non-platform workers of the same category” as regards the law and access to social protection. They should “be entitled to receive compensation in case of work accidents and occupational diseases, and be provided with social protection, including sickness and invalidity insurance coverage”; 2) the disclosure by platforms of various items of information to workers “concerning the functioning of the algorithm”. The report points out that “any algorithmic decisions must comply with the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, as enshrined in Article 22(1) of the GDPR, which means that there must be human oversight”; 3) the “need for platform workers and platforms to be properly organised and represented in order to facilitate social dialogue and collective bargaining”. The Commission now has at its disposal replies from European social partners (who do not intend to negotiate on this subject) and the report itself, and can use these to prepare its proposal for a directive, publication of which is expected on 8 December.

Equal pay : On 2 September, MEPs Samira Rafaela (Renew) and Kira Marie Peter-Hansen (Greens) presented their report on the proposal for a directive “strengthening the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms” (see Equal Pay). The text is now aimed at cases of discrimination on the basis of “gender” rather than of “sex”; it introduces the concept of “intersectional discrimination” and sharply reduces (from 250 to 10 workers) the threshold at which the employer must provide information on wage differentials. The report will be debated on 30 September at a joint session of the Committee on Employment & Social Affairs and the Committee on Women’s Rights. The Committee vote is scheduled for 9 December.

• State of the Union speech: As usual, the President of the European Commission delivered the annual State of the Union speech to the European Parliament. However, the President did not mention the terms “social Europe”, “social partners” or  “social dialogue” at any point during the course of a speech covering 17 pages. The sole consolation is that the letter of intent sent to the Presidents of the European Parliament and of the Council, which accompanied the speech, mentions a single legislative initiative in the field of social affairs for the period 2021-2022: a legislative proposal relating to protection of workers from the risks associated with exposure to asbestos at work (see Asbestos), which had already been announced as part of the EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work 2021-2027 (see letter of intent). For its part, the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs is due to vote, on 27 September, on an own-initiative report on this subject. One of the main debates centres on the issue of fixing a specific limit value (0.001 fibres per cm3), rather than leaving the social partners to decide this for themselves.


• SURE programme’s positive impact: On 22 September, the Commission published its second report on the impact of SURE, its 100 billion-euro instrument designed to protect jobs and income affected by the Covid‑19 pandemic (see SURE initiative. Unsurprisingly, according to estimates, the programme was used to finance national measures that cut the numbers of the unemployed by almost 1.5 million in 2020. Thanks to SURE and other support measures, says the Commission, “the increase in unemployment rates in 2020 (…) was (…) clearly milder than during the global financial crisis, despite the more severe drop in GDP in 2020”. Thus far, the EU has approved aid worth a total of 94.3 billion euros in favour of 19 Member States, 89.6 billion of which has already been paid.

• Aluminium : On 1 September, the European Commission unveiled a proposal to suspend anti-dumping duties on flat-rolled aluminium products imported from China. The social partners in the aluminium sector have published a joint statement expressing their strong opposition to this move, “which would be a disaster for European jobs and the ambitions of the European Green Deal” (see press release).

A first collective agreement at Amazon : On 15 September, under the auspices of the Minister of Employment, Andrea Orlando, the management of the e-commerce giant Amazon and the Italian transport unions Filt-Cgil, Fit-CislI and Uilt signed a historic industrial relations protocol, whereby Amazon: 1) recognises the three trade unions as social partners; 2) undertakes to apply, to its employees, the national collective bargaining agreement covering logistics, freight transport and shipping; 3) undertakes to commence negotiations on matters of health and safety, workloads, working time, bonuses, etc. The unions’ next aim is to extend this agreement to Amazon’s subcontractors. This text has been welcomed by the European trade-union federations covering the transport industry (ETF, see press release) and service workers (UNI Europa, see press release).

A new EWC : The agreement on setting up the European Works Council of the XPO Logistics group, signed on 31 October 2019, was published on 16 August this year on the French website where collective bargaining agreements are filed. This is one of the few such agreements in the road transport sector. It was negotiated following the takeover, in 2015, of the French group Norbert Dentressangle by the US group XPO. The agreement provides for the British delegation to stay on for a period of four years after the UK has left the UE, and for a supplementary agreement to be negotiated when the third year is reached, “so that the EWC can continue to function smoothly”. The British delegation (21,855 employees) is the largest one, ahead of France (13,288) and Spain (4,170). In total, 15 countries and 46,685 employees are represented on the EWC.

• Non-EU employees: the European Works Council of the insurance group Axa has decided to meet at regular intervals with staff representatives from its main non-EU countries. As a result, select committee members held successive meetings over the course of this year with staff representatives from Switzerland, Mexico and Japan (see press release).


• Renegotiation: The construction group Bouygues has renegotiated its European Works Council agreement. The main change is one relating to its composition, while the other clauses remain unchanged.

Creation of a SE Works Council: : the French group Edenred (4,100 employees in the EU), which is specialised in service and payment platforms (meal vouchers, etc.), was converted into a European company (SE) by a vote in favour at its general meeting on 11 May this year. According to the document describing the proposed conversion, this status “reflects the reality of the group more accurately”. The group is “resolutely international, with a presence in more than 46 countries and 84% of its employees working outside France at 31 December 2019. On that date, 56% of the group’s operating turnover was realised in Europe, where the largest component (47%) of its workforce is based”. On that same day, an agreement on the Edenred SE European Works Council was signed, replacing the first EWC agreement, signed in 2014. The new text follows the European Works Councils Directive very closely, and retains the definition of transnational matters used by that directive, which is a more restrictive definition than the one used in the directive on Employee Involvement in a SE, and contains provisions covering the appointment of employee directors to the group’s management board.

Putting the right to disconnect into practice : The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) has published a study analysing company practices involving the right to disconnect. This work will nurture the thinking of European decision-makers who are due to respond to the European Parliament’s request for a right to disconnect. Eurofound highlights the fact that home-based teleworkers are twice as likely as workers employed on site to exceed the limit of a 48-hour working week, and are much more likely to be working during their free time. Analysing the experience of the first four Member States to introduce – prior to 2021 – rules and agreements covering the right to disconnect, Eurofound emphasises the importance of the social partners in guaranteeing that these rules will translate into reality on the ground. The authors believe that a legal approach requiring the social partners to take action could be beneficial in terms of stimulating activity among the social partners.

• Apprenticeship in Member States: On 14 September, the European Commission published its evaluation report on the European Framework for Quality and Effective Apprenticeships, adopted in March 2018.  This framework, which is non-binding, contains 14 recommendations to Member States on ways to strengthen their apprenticeship system. As far as the Commission is concerned, this framework continues to be relevant and it “remains a key instrument to enhance the quality of apprenticeships across the EU”. However, while seven of the criteria are being properly applied, seven others require further progress. The report contains one fiche per country for presenting and evaluating the apprenticeship system.