SPÖ-Regner: Finally an end to catastrophic working conditions at Uber, Deliveroo & Co

2024-03-11 18:40:20

EU member states agree on better protection for platform workers

Vienna (OTS/SK) – Today, after a week-long blockade in the Council, the EU labor ministers agreed on a law for better working conditions for platform workers. Evelyn Regner, Vice-President of the EU Parliament and member of the Employment Committee, is pleased: “We had to tremble for a long time and finally, despite the resistance of conservative and liberal government parties, we are here today and can celebrate a victory for better working conditions in a particularly precarious sector . Especially as social democrats, it was very important to us to finally achieve real improvements for all of the almost 30 million workers, from Uber drivers to food delivery people. We have worked tirelessly to achieve this. Because while the industry generates profits worth billions, the people there usually work under precarious conditions such as false self-employment. There is often no right to paid time off in the event of illness, there is no vacation entitlement, no protection in the event of dismissal and even cases of surveillance during working hours are a widespread problem. We are finally putting an end to this by demanding clear conditions regarding employment relationships, giving platform workers access to essential social benefits and also preventing algorithm-controlled personnel decisions. As a parliament, we would have liked to implement these regulations uniformly. However, the current compromise leaves it up to the member states to regulate this nationally. We will take a close look at the national implementation so that it is really easy for platform workers in Austria to be considered employees and to receive all the associated social rights.” (Conclusion) lp