The Christmas present for the EU’s precarious gig workers can’t come soon enough: a political agreement announced in the middle of this month aims to strengthen the rights of platform workers across the European Union by establishing a legal presumption of employment. However, it does not have the support of the necessary qualified majority among the people. Dear Member States, that is clear today.

A quick update to the European Council online press release had promoted previous political dealings on file, the agency wrote.[O]On December 22, 2023, the Spanish Presidency concluded that it was not possible to reach the necessary majority for a provisional agreement among the representatives of the Member States (Coreper). The Belgian Presidency will resume negotiations with the European Parliament to reach an agreement on the final form of the directive. “

This development was previously covered bloomberg and Euractic — reported that the deal failed to secure a qualified majority at core par on Friday.

Euractic cited information that the Baltic states, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary and Italy had “formally said no to the deal they believe in”, adding: “As it became clear that a majority would not be reached, the document There was not even a formal vote taken.” It was too far removed from the board’s directives. “

France has been cited as being at the forefront of resistance to the deal announced mid-month by exhausted parliamentary negotiators, with parliamentary co-representatives also on file. Blaming French President Emmanuel Macron for opposition to deal Early this month.

Depending on the changes requested by the blocking Member States, the file could be forced back into the EU’s tripartite legislative negotiation process known as the Trilogue, where the European Parliament, Council and Commission The co-legislators will have to try again. To find a compromise that they can all agree on.

However, with European elections looming, there will be the added complication of tight deadlines if the Estates-General has to reconvene in January.

Unless a way can be found to move this file forward in the coming months, gig worker labor reform will be at the mercy of reconfigured political priorities under the new European Commission and Parliament. It is likely that the current system will lean even further to the right.

In a thread posted on He then announced on December 13 that an agreement had been reached on the platform worker file, and he blamed the Conservative and Liberal governments for blocking the reforms.

“The Spanish Council Presidency has reached an agreement with the support of all political groups in the country. [the European] Parliament other than the far right,” he also wrote [translated from Spanish using AI]. “This directive is inspired by the directive known as the Lidar Law, which came into force in Spain on August 12, 2021.”

“This pioneering regulation at international level, which positions the EU as a leader in a just digital transition, must continue to be discussed in the next Belgian Presidency, based on the agreement reached by the Spanish Presidency and the European Parliament.” he said. Added. “Spain and the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy will continue to defend an ambitious directive that truly improves the situation of workers on digital platforms.”

Congressional negotiators said at a press conference earlier this month to announce a tentative agreement on the file that estimates of the employment relationship between gig workers and platforms are among a list of five “indicators of control or direction.” He said it will be triggered if two of these conditions are met. However, he declined to provide details on what these standards would be.

Opposition to the deal is likely to focus on this element of the reform, with reports suggesting that bloc member states are seeking to raise the threshold before employment estimates begin.

Asked about this, a council spokesperson told TechCrunch: “We acknowledge that the disagreement centers on the issue of legal presumption.”

The council’s position is that came back in june, At least three of the seven criteria set out in the Directive had to be met for the employment presumption to be triggered. An interim agreement (now unsuccessful) had lowered the threshold to two out of five levels. However, the agreement announced earlier this month also allowed member states to expand the list of criteria, so disabled people are likely to only have two criteria to trigger employment presumptions instead of three. .

Lawmakers who touted the deal earlier this month called it “historic” and “ambitious” and said it “shifts the burden of proof” and burdens on precarious gig workers. It suggested that this would prevent them from being “incorrectly considered to be self-employed”. Prove on the platform that the employee is truly self-employed.