EURACTIV France obtained remaining drafts of two agreements that cab drivers and digital platforms, resembling Uber, signed on Wednesday, enshrining a minimal trip pay of €7.65 and setting the agenda for future negotiations.
Learn the unique French article right here.
The multi-party agreements, formally signed on Wednesday (18 January), set up a minimal cost for every trip, no matter distance travelled or time spent.
“For every trip, no matter its length or the space travelled, the platform shall make a cost, within the type of a wage, of a minimum of €7.65,” one of many settlement’s texts reads. It should apply to all platforms and all journeys to keep away from unfair competitors.
The second settlement touches on negotiation governance and irons out the problems that may be raised within the negotiations sooner or later.
Social dialogue
The settlement outcomes from collective negotiations that kicked off in October 2022 between digital platforms, together with Uber and Caocao, represented by the Affiliation of Platforms for the Self-Employed (API), and commerce union representatives elected by drivers.
The French authorities’s technique has honed in on “social dialogue” as the important thing to higher safety of the self-employed. This has been on the coronary heart of a legislative package deal between 2019 and 2021, which enshrines social dialogue because the vital device in figuring out issues about employee safety.
The preamble to the primary settlement on minimal trip pay states that “the institution of a regulatory framework below French regulation has already helped to enhance the situations below which drivers function.”
The signing of the settlement on minimal trip pay, a primary of its variety for platform employees, marks the beginning of a “contribution to an setting that encourages the event of a brand new mannequin of employment that’s each safe and attentive to drivers’ considerations,” the textual content reads.
The second draft settlement, which tackles “the strategy and technique of negotiation”, states that “signatories intend to put the foundations for constructive and productive social dialogue, in a spirit of loyalty and mutual belief, for the advantage of drivers and platforms.”
The foundations on governance and the main points of the important thing points to be mentioned in social dialogue are outlined within the settlement.
“Social dialogue is a robust mechanism that responds to 2 of drivers’ elementary wants: having the liberty, flexibility and management to be their very own boss whereas securing extra rights and protections,” mentioned Laureline Serieys, Basic Supervisor at Uber France, in a press release.
In line with Uber, a minimal wage ought to cut back ready time by a mean of 1 minute for the shortest rides (lower than 3km) and cut back the variety of journey requests declined by drivers by 5-10%. Consequently, the minimal fare for a single journey will enhance by 27% to €10.20 as of 1 February.
Challenges
Nevertheless, not everyone seems to be as enthusiastic in regards to the settlement. Though most drivers’ representatives endorsed the initiative, some commerce unions have claimed it was “inadequate”.
“This minimal wage is barely related if we outline what constitutes one journey,” Khalid Oughzif, one of many negotiators who voted towards it, advised EURACTIV France. “Think about a one-kilometre trip that takes a very long time due to visitors jams – will we nonetheless be paid €7.65?” he requested.
In his view, essentially the most related points revolve across the functioning of algorithms and the disconnection of accounts with no prior discover. Rym Saker, Communications Supervisor at Uber France, confirmed to EURACTIV France that this matter can be on the coronary heart of negotiations in 2023.
Commerce unionist Brahim Ben Ali, who didn’t take part within the negotiations, described the settlement as a device to maintain drivers in job insecurity.
Ben Ali additionally accused the ARPE President, Bruno Mettling, of getting a battle of curiosity. In Might, the French newspaper L’Humanité reported that Mettling had given professional recommendation to Uber as a part of a parliamentary mission that sought to control platforms. Mettling has denied having acquired any wage from the American firm.
EU dimension
Oughzif advised EURACTIV France that he hopes many of those points shall be resolved by adopting the EU’s platform employees’ directive.
The directive, which considerations the employees of gig financial system platforms, is at the moment transferring by way of the EU legislative process, with MEPs resulting from vote on the directive on 1 or 2 February in Brussels and member states nonetheless finalising their place.
If handed, the directive might end in a authorized presumption of salaried standing for self-employed employees and set up new guidelines on algorithmic administration.
The French authorities is vital of the directive’s scope. In a collection of notes and letters reported by EURACTIV in September 2022, French officers insisted that the EU legislative textual content risked undermining “social dialogue, [which] is a key component for the harmonisation of those new financial actions with higher social rights and dealing situations for employees utilizing [these] platforms”.
The officers added, “French laws at the moment permits each the platforms and the employees utilizing them to stay free to decide on their enterprise mannequin and contractual phrases.”
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald/Luca Bertuzzi]
