Directive blocked

The planned EU directive protecting the rights of platform workers (see Labour Research, February 2024, page 8), seems doomed after four governments failed to support the proposal at a meeting of the European Council on 16 February.

The proposal had been greatly watered down following earlier opposition, but that was insufficient to win the support of this “blocking minority”. With little time before elections to the European Parliament in June, there seems no way forward for the plan.

Ludovic Voet of the European Trade Union Confederation expressed his anger at the outcome.

He said: “Progress on even the weakest rules possible has been stopped by governments with well-documented links to lobbyists.”