Ciao, Una volta tanto, buone notizie da Bruxelles. Cheers, ---a --- Victory Over Uberization: DiPLab Joins Workers in Celebration as EU Passes Platform Work Directive in Stunning Turnaround After years of intricate negotiations, in a last-minute twist worthy of a movie, [ https://www.euractiv.com/section/gig-economy/news/at-long-last-eu-countries-... | EU’s platform work directive was adopted, marking a significant step forward for labor rights within the platform economy ] . The milestone was achieved at the March 11 , 2024 meeting of the labour ministers, where Estonia and Greece moved past their previous abstentions to vote in favor of the directive. [ https://www.euractiv.com/section/gig-economy/news/at-long-last-eu-countries-... | Done in “a spirit of compromise”, this showcases EU’s commitment to progressive labor policies. ] Since its proposal on December 9 , 2021 to the Council’s general approach agreed on June 12 , 2023, to negotiations concluding on February 8 , 2024, the [ https://braveneweurope.com/platform-work-directive-blocked-by-germany-france... | directive’s journey has been highly contentious ] , underscoring its importance in regulating the gig economy. Throughout its legislative process, on several occasions the directive was declared dead in the water. [ https://www.euractiv.com/section/gig-economy/news/in-last-minute-upset-franc... | France in particular sowed disarray by opposing the text, ultimately undermining the legal presumption of employment ] . This position was ultimately outvoted. The final agreement aims to balance national labor systems with minimum EU-wide protection for 28+ million platform workers. [ https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/03/11/platform-... | It introduces a legal presumption of employment, with platforms needing to prove the absence of an employment relationship. ] Despite this important victory, workers should remain cautious. A number of changes have been made to the presumption of employment since it was originally created. The burden of proof, however, falls on the platform owners based on factual elements rather than legal criteria. Additionally, the directive gives workers’ representatives the right to scrutinize algorithmic management practices of their platforms. But workers don’t seem to have full collective bargaining rights over these algorithms. As a compromise, the directive represents a first step, but isn’t the end of the fight for platform workers’ rights. [ https://diplab.eu/ | The DiPLab research team is proud to have played a significant role by providing guidance and support to policymakers, unions, and organizers ] during the platform work directive’s implementation process. Additionally, our team actively participated in co-organizing and [ https://diplab.eu/diplab-on-the-european-parliaments-transnational-forum-of-... | advocating for worker rights at the EU Parliament’s 4th Forum for Alternatives to Uberization. ] Importantly, DiPLab, the Weizenbaum Institute, and the DAIR initiative as active parts of the [ https://diplab.eu/encore | project EnCOre ] joined workers’ unions and institutions at the Forum, [ https://diplab.eu/workers-commitment-to-fight-against-uberisation-remains-un... | to shape and endorse the 2024 Brussels Appeal, a text aiming to forge connections between European platform workers and worldwide collectives of content moderators, data workers, and cloud workers—that co-signed it. ] --- Read more: [ https://diplab.eu/victory-over-uberization-diplab-joins-workers-in-celebrati... | https://diplab.eu/victory-over-uberization-diplab-joins-workers-in-celebrati... ] -- Antonio A. Casilli Professor, Telecom Paris | Institut Polytechnique de Paris By-Fellow, Churchill College | University of Cambridge Invited professor, Center for Internet & Society | French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) *We respect your right to disconnect. My workflow efficiency accounts for this email send time. Taking action or responding outside of office hours is not mandatory*