EU Members Reject Provisional Deal on Gig Workers’ Rights

Max Ramsay, Bloomberg News

An Uber Eats courier in Berlin. Photographer: Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- European Union member states rejected a provisional deal that would have reclassified millions of people working for ride-hailing and food-delivery apps as employees.

Officials from Spain, which holds the bloc’s rotating presidency, decided there was not the necessary majority to pass the deal and sent the issue back for further negotiations with the European Parliament, according to a statement on the European Council’s website on Friday.

Last week’s provisional agreement would potentially have cost the gig economy industry billions of euros each year, according to European Commission estimates. It sought to require platforms like Uber Technologies Inc., Deliveroo Plc and others to give full employment status to an estimated 5.5 million workers that are currently classified as self-employed.

Spain will “continue defending an ambitious Directive that truly improves the situation of digital platform workers,” despite EU states blocking the regulation, Spain State Secretary for Employment Joaquín Pérez Rey wrote in a post on X.

“EU countries sent a clear signal that the provisional agreement did not deliver on the Directive’s goal to improve working conditions for platform workers and legal certainty to the sector,” a spokesperson for Uber said by email.

The European Trade Union Confederation called on the EU to conclude a new deal within the next six months. The rejected agreement “was far from ideal but finally brought some basic standards to the sector,” Confederal Secretary Ludovic Voet said in a statement.

The European Commission proposed a version of the rules in 2021 to give gig workers stronger protections associated with employment contracts. The industry would’ve been on the hook for an additional €4.5 billion ($5 billion) per year based on the number of eligible workers at the time, according to the commission’s estimates.

Uber, Bolt and Freenow this week agreed to raise the minimum wage they pay drivers in France ahead of the new rules.

--With assistance from Mark Bergen and Agatha Cantrill.