Frankfurt – IG Metall welcomes the European Commission’s draft directive to improve the rights of platform workers. “A steadily growing parallel labor market has emerged on the internet that urgently needs to be regulated,” said Christiane Benner, Second Chair of IG Metall. “The European Commission is taking on this challenge.”
In the future, if certain indicators are present, there will be a presumption of an employment relationship with the platform. The burden of proof regarding whether the work is self-employment or, as presumed by law, an employment relationship will lie with the platforms. “This reversal of the burden of proof is right and important. It will enable fair treatment and pay for more crowdworkers,” Benner emphasizes.
The draft directive estimates that up to five and a half million crowd workers in the EU are incorrectly classified as self-employed. “With this draft directive, the Commission has drawn the correct conclusion from a series of legal disputes. The majority of these have led to a correction in the classification of platform workers,” says Benner.
In Germany, the Federal Labor Court classified a crowdworker as an employee for the first time last December. IG Metall had supported the plaintiff (Case No. 9 AZR 102/20). However, IG Metall is highly critical of the fact that this regulation is intended to apply only to newly established employment relationships. This would not help the five and a half million misclassified platform workers currently active. “This needs to be urgently addressed so that two classes of platform workers are not created,” Benner demands.
“Another positive aspect is the planned strengthening of the rights of unions and works councils in connection with platform work, even though we would have liked to see a right to bring class-action lawsuits.”
The draft addresses many of IG Metall’s demands. It is evident in many places that the European Commission is confronting the profound transformation of the world of work brought about by digitalization. Benner: “Platform work is on the rise. It is mostly cross-border. It is therefore very good that the directive is intended to apply to all activities carried out in the European Union, regardless of the platform’s place of business. It is also good and in line with the times that the European Commission makes no distinction between location-based and non-location-based work—that is, between crowdwork and gig work.”
IG Metall views it positively that the draft directive provides for comprehensive transparency requirements toward platform workers, unions, and authorities. “The lack of transparency and the widespread use of algorithmic decision-making systems are among the biggest problems for millions of platform workers,” said Christiane Benner. If, for example, an algorithm concludes that platform workers may have violated the platform’s terms and conditions, this often results in them not being paid or having their accounts suspended. The European Commission’s proposal to establish real-life points of contact—so that crowdworkers can request, in the event of disputed decisions, that the platforms have these reviewed by humans rather than by machines or computers—could represent a major improvement.
In this way, the directive could also contribute to greater equality. The German federal government’s third report on gender equality calls for—in addition to low-threshold procedures for clarifying the legal status of crowd workers—protection against discrimination by algorithms in the context of platform work. However, one cause for concern is that the Commission notes in its explanatory memorandum that the draft AI Regulation—also presented by the Commission—does not provide for employee rights. This gap must be closed for all employees—not just those on platforms.
IG Metall has been advocating for the rights of platform workers for years. In this context, the union launched an ombudsman office for paid crowdsourcing in 2017 in collaboration with nine platforms. This office enables crowdworkers, for example, to question the reasons for account suspensions and have them reviewed.
Further information:
Crowdsourcing Code of Conduct
Ombudsman Office for the Code of Conduct
BMAS Key Points for a “Fair Platform Economy”: Platform Work (November 27, 2020)
Federal Labor Court (BAG) ruling of December 1, 2020
Third Gender Equality Report of the Federal Government (June 16, 2021)
Further Information and Press Photos of Christiane Benner
