Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 July 2023
209. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the position Ireland took at European Council level in discussions regarding the Council approach to the Platform Workers Directive; if Ireland pushed for stronger safeguards for workers, or if it lent support for the general approach, which did not offer such safeguards for workers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33423/23]
View answerA proposal for a Directive on improving working conditions in platform work includes, among other things, measures to determine the employment status of people working through digital labour platforms and new rights for both workers and self-employed people regarding algorithmic management. It provides for a rebuttable legal presumption which is to be applied in proceedings where the employment status is in question. Ireland already has mechanisms for the determination of employment status and therefore favoured the legal presumption test in the original proposal.
However, in the spirit of compromise. Ireland gave its support to the compromise texts that were before EPSCO in December 2022 and in June 2023. The file has now moved on to trialogues.
