The European Parliament, regarding the Commission's proposal to Parliament and the Council (COM(2021)0762), adopted its position on the Platform Work, introducing several amendments to the text proposed by the Commission. 

One of the main changes is the reference to how digitisation is changing the world of work; it also highlights the negative aspects and risks of this phenomenon for employment and working conditions, the health and safety of workers, and the protection of their fundamental rights. Similarly, it emphasises algorithm-based technologies, including automated monitoring and decision-making systems. At the same time, they have enabled the emergence and growth of digital labour platforms, which can also produce power imbalances and opacity in decision-making, as well as technology-enabled surveillance that could exacerbate discriminatory practices and pose risks to workers' privacy and health and safety, and human dignity, and can lead to negative consequences for working conditions and worker exploitation.

The MEPs pointed out that the adopted rules, which will be discussed with national governments, combat false self-employment as it can lead to precarious conditions and lack of social protection, but also unfair competition, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises.

They confirmed that, in the event of a dispute between the platform and an employee, the former would be responsible for demonstrating why the person in question should not be employed, also introducing a list of non-mandatory criteria for determining the employment status of an employee. 

Moreover, Member States must ensure human supervision of all decisions that significantly affect working conditions. 

MEPs also introduced provisions to intensify the exchange of information between competent labour, social protection, and tax authorities in cross-border cases and dissuasive sanctions. 

Hereis a previous article in the Newsletter on the issue.