January 2023 - EU - What it's not working in the presumption of employment, according to the Swedish MEP Sara Skyttedal

The European Union should pass legislation that will bolster wage and labor protections for ride-hailing drivers, delivery riders, and other people working for digital labor platforms.

However, Swedish MEP Sara Skyttedal sent an email to right-leaning members, urging them to slow down the process.

Skyttedal has started an initiative on her own to get the parliament to vote on the so-called 'presumption of employment'. It should prevent the gig companies' systematic classification of workers as self-employed. 

In December 2022, the European Parliament’s Employment Committee adopted amendments to the Platform Work Directive that represent the EU’s best effort yet to curb employment misclassification in the sector and develop world-leading safeguards against the abusive potential of workplace automation.

According to Skyttedal, the Employment Committee’s position would see ‘tens of thousands of genuinely self-employed people that use the internet to find customers presumed to be employees.’ The goal seems to be to delay the process and, in the long run, water down the directive enough so that the gig companies' exploitation can continue.

Skyttedal has enough support from the MEPs to force the plenary debate and vote, which will take place on January 19.

Read on: in English