While the millions of delivery men and drivers working for these platforms are by default treated as self-employed, complicating their access to social coverage, the European Commission's project, which will have to be approved by states and MEPs, wants to clarify their status.

Across the EU, courts have rendered more than 100 decisions and hundreds more are pending in litigation.

If the judgments, from Spain to the Netherlands, have for the most part requalified as employees the workers of the pinned platforms, other decisions go in the opposite direction: a Belgian court dismissed on Wednesday several dozen Deliveroo couriers who wished to be recognized as employees.

In France, Uber has been the subject of an investigation since 2015 for "hidden work" targeting the employment conditions of its VTC drivers, a source familiar with the matter told AFP on Wednesday.

Concerned about harmonization, Brussels should propose five criteria, in particular by examining whether a platform determines through its application levels of remuneration, imposes the wearing of uniform or the use of certain equipment, or prohibits working for other companies.

If at least two criteria were met, the platform would be considered as an employer, and would have to comply with the obligations of labor law (minimum wage, working time, safety standards, etc.) imposed by the legislation of the country concerned.

Delivery man for Deliveroo stacking delivery bags in Bordeaux on August 28, 2017 GEORGES GOBET AFP

The text would also impose increased transparency on the operation of application algorithms.

- "Huge profits" -

"For too long, platforms have made enormous profits by evading their fundamental obligations at the expense of workers, while deceptively ensuring that they offer them a choice," said Ludovic Voet, president of the ETUC (confederation of European trade unions).

The platforms could oppose the status of employer if they manage to demonstrate the self-employed status of their workers, under national law.

While meal delivery platforms or vehicles with driver (VTC) are the first targets, online services (translation, etc.) are also concerned: in all, some 500 companies and 28 million employees.

Uber drivers demonstrating in Brussels on November 25, 2021 Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD AFP

In mid-September, the European Parliament called on the Commission to "guarantee legal certainty" for platform workers by ensuring that they no longer have to prove their relationship of subordination to their employer in the event of a dispute.

"These platforms claim to be intermediaries, while in practice they determine prices, schedules, conditions of service," observed MEP Leila Chaibi (GUE / NGL, left).

His training on Wednesday greeted the Commission's project as an "exciting victory".

By preserving the possibility of remaining independent while offering "clear and precise criteria" for the status of employee, "the flexibility and the great diversity of the platforms should be respected", added the MEP Anne Sander (EPP, right).

The EU has little competence in labor law, and the platforms face a wide range of national rules.

In Spain, meal delivery men are now recognized as employees - pushing Deliveroo out of this market.

In other states, courts have ordered platforms to enter into collective agreements even if workers remain self-employed.

Uber logo at company headquarters on May 8, 2019 in San Francisco Josh Edelson AFP / Archives

The platforms fiercely oppose any major requalification of workers: in addition to the weakening of their economic model, they point to a study by the Copenhagen Economics firm predicting that such a scenario would force some 250,000 people in the EU to leave the sector.

Too vague criteria could lead to a multiplication of legal proceedings, with "disastrous consequences for the workers themselves, the restaurants and the economy at large", warned the Federation Delivery Platforms Europe in a statement.

© 2021 AFP