​​Europe’s biggest platform companies will fail the majority of the five tests laid down by the EU to determine whether their staff are genuinely self-employed, an analysis by the ETUC has found.

The platform work directive published by the European Commission in December includes a list of criteria which will be used to determine if an employment relationship exists between workers and a company. If a company meets at least two of the five criteria, they will be considered an employer.

These burdensome criteria could defeat the point of a ‘presumption’ of employment status promised by the Commission as well as opening new loopholes which platform companies could use to continue escaping their obligations.

But that doesn’t mean platforms can expect a free ride. Our analysis has found Uber and Deliveroo are among well-known companies which meet more than two of the tests and would therefore be classed as employers.

ETUC Confederal Secretary Ludovic Voet said:

“Platform companies will be working hard and spending big to try to cheat the tests set for them by the EU and maintain their business model based on exploitation.But if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. The same goes for employers.

“It couldn’t be clearer that Europe’s biggest platform companies should be considered employers. If the proposed Directive does not ultimately apply to large platforms which clearly act as employers, what would be the purpose of this directive?

“The reaction of the platforms, confident that the Directive will confirm that they can operate with self-employed without changing any part of how they currently operate, should alert MEPs and ministers of the need to strengthen the proposed Directive so that no platform falls through the cracks.

“MEPs and ministers should close the loopholes in the draft legislation to ensure platforms can’t continue cheating workers and businesses that play by the rules. The best thing platforms could do is finally get around the table with trade unions and negotiate decent pay and conditions for their workers.”

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