Meeting with
Move EU (UBER, BOLT, FREE NOW)
Ref. Ares(2021)7622242 - 10/12/2021
Online, 30 November 2021
Steering brief
Scene setter
On the 30 November 2021, from 11.00 until 11.30, you will have an online meeting with
members of Move EU, an association of digital labour platforms active in
the ride-hailing sector, at their request. Move EU has only three members: UBER, BOLT
and FREE NOW. The CEO of these three companies will attend the meeting:
UBER;
BOLT;
FREE NOW.
All three
will make the case that people working through platforms should
remain self-employed, while being given more social rights and better social
protection.
UBER, BOLT and FREE NOW are opposed to the rebuttable presumption of the
employment relationship and to a reversal of the burden of proof.
UBER, in the last twelve months, has faced a series of high-profile judicial blows to its
business model of contracting self-employed drivers, in both the EU (notably in France
and the Netherlands) and the UK.
pivot will most probably build on Uber’s White Paper on A Better Deal
for European Platform Workers, published on 15 February 2021 (in your file).
will probably mention the many surveys of riders that BOLT claims to have
carried out, all of them indicating a preference for the self-employed status (in your file).
FREE NOW is relatively less known, but given its membership of Move EU, it is on the
same line as UBER and BOLT.
The three
may refer to a very recent study published earlier this month (in your file)
commissioned by some of them (BOLT and UBER, together with Deliveroo, DeliveryHero
and Wolt) to consultancy Copenhagen Economics. The study claims that a policy that
would put an end to flexibility in platform work would be highly detrimental to people
working through platforms and to consumers. We consider however that the study
however is based on questionable data and assumptions.
In a meeting with DG Korte on 17 March 2021,
BOLT called on the Commission to
consider a European third category status and/or bringing platform work under the
scope of temporary agency legislation.
BOLT claimed that EU harmonised rules on the employment status would bring down the
current ‘wage premiums’ over national minimum wages enjoyed by its drivers and would
negatively affect the number of drivers currently working through its app.
On 5 November 2021, you had an online meeting with
Deliveroo,
who is broadly on the same line as
UBER, BOLT and FREE NOW, although
not member of EU Move.
In October 2021, Members of the Cabinet of Commissioner Schmit met with
representatives of UBER, BOLT and FREE NOW.
On 23 November 2021, Commissioner Schmit met with,
f UBER.
The Commission has met with Uber representatives on at least 5 occasions since
December 2019, at both Cabinet and services level bilaterally and in stakeholder fact-
finding workshops.
Steering brief
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Meeting with
Move EU (UBER, BOLT, FREE NOW)
Online, 30 November 2021
NB1: your meeting of 30 November has been logistically organised by a public affairs
consultancy, “EU Strategy” based in Brussels, close to the Berlaymont (Charlemagne),
hired by EU Move (i.e: UBER, BOLT and FREE NOW)
NB2: following a decision of a Court of Appeal taken on Wednesday 24 November, it is
forbidden for UBER vehicles to work in the Brussels region as of Friday 26 November,
18.00. Drivers with a licence from Wallonia and Flanders can still work, including inside
Brussels.
Objectives of the meeting
What we want:
Explain the objectives of our forthcoming legislative initiative on platform workers.
Convince your interlocutors that this legislative initiative is also in their interest.
What the interlocutor wants:
Convinced you to give up on the forthcoming legislation on platform workers,
especially on a rebuttable presumption of the employment relationship and on the
reversal of the burden of proof.
Convinced you to create a specific status for platform workers.
Key messages
The platform economy brings considerable benefits. We want to make sure that these
benefits are reaped, spread equally and accessed fairly, while protecting labour rights
and ensuring minimum social protection.
Challenges remain, particularly as regards the correct classification of the employment
status of many people working through platforms, as well as the transparency and
accountability of algorithmic management and surveillance.
The Commission is looking into ways to improve the working conditions in platform
work and is planning to adopt a legislative initiative on 8 December 2021.
Our objective is to ensure that people working through platforms are protected by
minimum standards regarding working conditions and thus contribute to a sustainable
development of the platform economy.
We need to address issues, such as access to social rights already available to other
workers, but also emerging phenomena such as algorithmic management.
Contact – briefing coordination:
(SG
)
Contact – briefing contribution:
(EMPL
)
Steering brief
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