EU wants protection for platform workers: Will Germany block the next EU directive?

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Courier driver

Photo: Arnulf Hettrich / IMAGO

With a new directive, EU politicians want to strengthen the rights of people who do so-called platform work. This refers to people who offer their services via an online platform - for example as an Uber driver, domestic worker or food delivery person.

However, before the vote on the directive planned for this Friday, there is apparently still a dispute among the traffic light partners as to how Germany should respond to the agreement reached at EU level last week.

According to the Handelsblatt, Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) fears that the federal government will once again have to abstain from an EU law, as was the case in the vote on the supply chain law. Christian Lindner's (FDP) Ministry of Finance has been blocking the directive for a long time.

According to government circles, Heil, supported by the Greens, has not yet given up on negotiations. The lead Ministry of Labor says that they are “advocating for an ambitious guideline to design fair platform work.”

The directive is intended, among other things, to curb bogus self-employment by platform workers. While employees previously had to prove themselves that they were not being treated as self-employed, in the future the platforms will have to prove the opposite.

Diplomats fear legal uncertainties

However, the directive is not without controversy among other European partners. It initially failed in a vote among the EU member states in December. The Belgian Presidency then drew up a watered-down text.

According to diplomats, this preliminary agreement also creates legal uncertainty. Due to the lack of uniform European regulations, there could be very different national regulations, it was said.

According to Handelsblatt, the German Finance Ministry also still does not want to agree to this weakened version. According to government circles, this is primarily due to the possible European legal requirement for reversal of the burden of proof.

To date, Uber drivers or bicycle couriers, for example, are often self-employed on paper and therefore do not have social insurance through their employer. More than 30 million people in the EU work for platform companies, and by 2025 the number could rise to more than 40 million. According to the EU Commission, around 5.5 million of them are incorrectly self-employed.

apr/kko/dpa