At the plenary session of 15 June, the EU Parliament passed a non-legislative resolution asking for common measures to ensure that collaborative platforms respect workers’ (and consumers’) rights as well as their tax obligations, to improve compliance and to fight abuse.
The resolution calls for “fair working conditions and adequate legal and social protection for all workers” in the growing gig economy, through appropriate safeguards of workers’ rights to industrial action or collective bargaining. Moreover, it urges the EU Commission and the Member States to establish effective criteria for differentiating between “peers” (individual citizens providing services on an occasional basis) and “professional” providers.
In particular, the Parliament stressed the need to address regulatory grey areas which cause fragmentation due to significant differences in the Member States’ national and local regulations and case law. Both the Commission and the Member States should assess the need to modernise existing legislation and coordinate social security system to ensure exportability of benefits, as well as the portability of ratings and reviews, which constitute platform workers’ digital market value.
This non-binding resolution represents Parliament’s response to the Commission communication on a European agenda for the collaborative economy issued in June 2016, on which we reported last year.
