Platform workers’ directive

On 2 February 2023, the European Parliament approved the decision to start negotiations on new a directive aimed at improving the working conditions of workers on digital labour platforms. Digital labour platforms are internet-based companies that co-ordinate and organise the work provided by workers to third-party clients. The work can either be provided in a specific location (e.g. food delivery) or online (e.g. translation services).

The purpose of the new directive is to combat false self-employment in platform work, to ensure a human oversight on all decisions affecting working conditions, and to oblige the platforms to share more information with national authorities. The new rules will regulate how to correctly determine the employment status of platform workers and how digital labour platforms should use algorithms and artificial intelligence to monitor and evaluate their workers.

With this decision, the European Parliament gave a mandate to the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs to negotiate with the European Council, which is considered the next step towards the adoption of the directive.