1/ You can't ask Al Capone to promote the alcohol-free month ! EU can’t let platforms with illegal practices re-write laws etuc.org/en/pressreleas… .@etuc_ces (thread)
2/ The ETUC .@etuc_ces is calling on the European Commission .@EU_Commission to face down cynical new efforts by platform companies to avoid their most basic obligations to their workers. 
3/ The Commission will tomorrow launch a consultation on improving the working conditions in platform companies like #Uber, #Deliveroo or #Glovo.
4/ It comes after major legal rulings in three countries this year which found that #Uber drivers and #Deliveroo riders were not genuinely self-employed and should be recognised as workers, with rights to statutory minimum wages, paid holidays, social security contributions…
5/ …and other benefits.
#Uber has responded by calling on the Commission to make platform companies exempt from employment and labour law so that it can continue to make profits from false self-employment.
#Uber has responded by calling on the Commission to make platform companies exempt from employment and labour law so that it can continue to make profits from false self-employment.
6/ A slick 32-page lobbying document published by the company last week says:
“Each time a company provides additional benefits to independent workers, the less independent these workers could become in the eyes of the courts.
“Each time a company provides additional benefits to independent workers, the less independent these workers could become in the eyes of the courts.
7/ As a result, platforms like Uber who provide independent work cannot provide all the support we want to give individuals…Clear rules on what is and isn’t true independence - that can be used by workers, platforms and the authorities without…
8/ …having to rely on the courts whose interpretation of the rules may differ - would benefit all.”
9/ This model is based on an exemption from employment law for platform companies passed in California in 2020 following a 205 billion dollar lobbying campaign by #Uber, #Lyft and others.
10/ The same sum of money could have been used to give 14,000 workers a 1,000 Euro extra per month raise in wages and social benefits for a year.
Platforms have also increased their lobbying activities in Brussels.
Platforms have also increased their lobbying activities in Brussels.
11/ #Uber has almost doubled its lobbying costs since 2015 and now has a 899,999 Euro operation which has held 11 meetings with the European Commission since January 2020.
12 / Deliveroo established an office in Brussels in 2018 and last year doubled its staff, while Just Eat registered as a lobbyist just two months ago, according to LobbyFacts.EU.
13 / It is hardly surprising that platform companies with illegal practices want to avoid scrutiny when they keep losing court cases across Europe. It’s costing them millions.
14 / Some platform companies make huge profits through false self-employment of people who should be treated as workers and benefit from proper wages, holiday pay and social security.
15 / The Commission should see this last-ditch lobbying blitz for what it is: a cynical attempt by platform companies to save a business model based on exploitation and legal loopholes. There can be no place for this aggressive anti-worker lobbying in a social Europe.
16 / You can't ask Al Capone to promote the alcohol-free month. If platform companies are serious about wanting to improve the lives of their workers, then trade unions are ready to engage in real collective bargaining with them.
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