The European Commission has proposed new strict rules for online businesses such as Uber and the many food delivery platforms, according to a statement on the institution’s website. The EC proposal aims to classify online businesses as drivers, couriers, cleaners, fitness trainers, masseurs and other workers who use applications and platforms on the Internet to find work as employees. By acquiring employment status, workers will gain access to the entire social system of the countries in which they live, such as the right to a minimum wage, paid leave, unemployment benefits and health rights, and more. Some companies in this field classify their workers as self-employed or independent contractors. In this way, businesses save costs and have no serious legal obligations to workers. Usually people who want to have their free time or are looking for extra income work for such companies. However, the pandemic revealed the problems associated with this model, as the paralysis of the economy hit businesses, and many employees were left without the right to unemployment benefits and so on.
Unsurprisingly, Uber and other large gig companies are opposed to the EC’s plans, which could seriously affect their business models. The new rules will increase their spending by billions of dollars. Shared travel company Uber says the new rules will shift costs to end users, and approximately 250,000 couriers and 135,000 drivers in Europe will lose their jobs. More than 28 million people in the European Union work through digital platforms, and their number is expected to jump to 43 million by 2025, according to the European Commission, adding that many of these workers are classified as self-employed. Between 2016 and 2020, the revenues of the gig economy jumped almost 5 times from 3 billion euros to 14 billion euros. The proposal of the European Commission is to be discussed in the European Parliament and the European Council. Once adopted by these institutions, each EU Member State will have 2 years to introduce the new rules into its national legislation.
