Considerations on COM(2021)762 - Improving working conditions in platform work - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2021)762 - Improving working conditions in platform work. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2021)762  |
| date | December 9, 2021 |
(2) This Directive respects fundamental rights and observes the principles recognised in particular by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (‘the Charter’). In particular, Article 31 of the Charter provides for the right of every worker to working conditions which respect his or her health, safety and dignity. Article 27 of the Charter protects the workers’ right to information and consultation within the undertaking. Article 8 of the Charter provides that everyone has the right to the protection of personal data concerning him or her. Article 16 of the Charter recognises the freedom to conduct a business.
(3) Principle No 5 of the European Pillar of Social Rights, proclaimed at Gothenburg on 17 November 2017 53 , provides that, regardless of the type and duration of the employment relationship, workers have the right to fair and equal treatment regarding working conditions, access to social protection and training; that, in accordance with legislation and collective agreements, the necessary flexibility for employers to adapt swiftly to changes in the economic context is to be ensured; and that innovative forms of work that ensure quality working conditions are to be fostered, that entrepreneurship and self-employment are to be encouraged and that occupational mobility is to be facilitated. The Porto Social Summit of May 2021 welcomed the Action Plan accompanying the Social Pillar 54 as guidance for its implementation.
(4) Digitalisation is changing the world of work, improving productivity and enhancing flexibility, while also carrying some risks for employment and working conditions. Algorithm-based technologies, including automated monitoring and decision-making systems, have enabled the emergence and growth of digital labour platforms.
(5) Platform work is performed by individuals through the digital infrastructure of digital labour platforms that provide a service to their customers. By means of the algorithms, the digital labour platforms may control, to a lesser or greater extent – depending on their business model – the performance of the work, its remuneration and the relationship between their customers and the persons performing the work. Platform work can be performed exclusively online through electronic tools (‘online platform work’) or in a hybrid way combining an online communication process with a subsequent activity in the physical world (‘on-location platform work’). Many of the existing digital labour platforms are international business actors deploying their activities and business models in several Member States or across borders.
(6) Platform work can provide opportunities for accessing the labour market more easily, gaining additional income through a secondary activity or enjoying some flexibility in the organisation of working time. At the same time, platform work brings challenges, as it can blur the boundaries between employment relationship and self-employed activity, and the responsibilities of employers and workers. Misclassification of the employment status has consequences for the persons affected, as it is likely to restrict access to existing labour and social rights. It also leads to an uneven playing field with respect to businesses that classify their workers correctly, and it has implications for Member States’ industrial relations systems, their tax base and the coverage and sustainability of their social protection systems. While such challenges are broader than platform work, they are particularly acute and pressing in the platform economy.
(7) Court cases in several Member States have shown the persistence of misclassification of the employment status in certain types of platform work, in particular in sectors where digital labour platforms exert a certain degree of control over the remuneration and performance of work. While digital labour platforms frequently classify persons working through them as self-employed or ‘independent contractors’, many courts have found that the platforms exercise de facto direction and control over those persons, often integrating them in their main business activities and unilaterally determining the level of remuneration. Those courts have therefore reclassified purportedly self-employed persons as workers employed by the platforms. However, national case law has resulted in diverse outcomes and digital labour platforms have adapted their business model in various ways, thus increasing the lack of legal certainty over the employment status.
(8) Automated monitoring and decision-making systems powered by algorithms increasingly replace functions that managers usually perform in businesses, such as allocating tasks, giving instructions, evaluating the work performed, providing incentives or imposing sanctions. Digital labour platforms use such algorithmic systems as a standard way of organising and managing platform work through their infrastructure. Persons performing platform work subject to such algorithmic management often lack information on how the algorithms work, which personal data are being used and how their behaviour affects decisions taken by automated systems. Workers’ representatives and labour inspectorates do not have access to this information either. Moreover, persons performing platform work often do not know the reasons for decisions taken or supported by automated systems and lack the possibility to discuss those decisions with a contact person or to contest them.
(9) When platforms operate in several Member States or across borders, it is often unclear where the platform work is performed and by whom. Also, national authorities do not have easy access to data on digital labour platforms, including the number of persons performing platform work, their employment status, and their working conditions. This complicates the enforcement of applicable rules, including in respect of labour law and social protection.
(10) A body of legal instruments provides for minimum standards in working conditions and labour rights across the Union. This includes in particular Directive (EU) 2019/1152 of the European Parliament and of the Council 55 on transparent and predictable working conditions, Directive 2003/88/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 56 on working time, Directive 2008/104/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 57 on temporary agency work, and other specific instruments on aspects such as health and safety at work, pregnant workers, work-life balance, fixed-term work, part-time work, posting of workers, information and consultation of workers, among others. While those instruments provide a level of protection to workers, they do not apply to the genuine self-employed.
(11) Council Recommendation 2019/C 387/01 58 on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed recommends Member States to take measures ensuring formal and effective coverage, adequacy and transparency of social protection schemes for all workers and self-employed. Member States currently have varying degrees of providing social protection to the self-employed.
(12) Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council 59 (‘General Data Protection Regulation’) ensures the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data, and in particular provides certain rights and obligations as well as safeguards concerning lawful, fair and transparent processing of personal data, including with regard to automated individual decision-making. Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 of the European Parliament and of the Council 60 promotes fairness and transparency for ‘business users’ using online intermediation services provided by operators of online platforms. The European Commission has proposed further legislation laying down harmonised rules for providers and users of artificial intelligence systems 61 .
(13) While existing or proposed Union legal acts provide for certain general safeguards, challenges in platform work require some further specific measures. In order to adequately frame the development of platform work in a sustainable manner, it is necessary for the Union to set new minimum standards in working conditions to address the challenges arising from platform work. Persons performing platform work in the Union should be provided with a number of minimum rights aiming at ensuring correct determination of their employment status, at promoting transparency, fairness and accountability in algorithmic management, and at improving transparency in platform work, including in cross-border situations. This should be done with a view to improving legal certainty, creating a level playing field between digital labour platforms and offline providers of services and supporting the sustainable growth of digital labour platforms in the Union.
(14) The Commission has undertaken a two-stage consultation of the social partners, in accordance with Article 154 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, on the improvement of working conditions in platform work. There was no agreement among the social partners to enter into negotiations with regard to those matters. It is, however, important to take action at Union level in this area by adapting the current legal framework to the emergence of platform work.
(15) In addition, the Commission held extensive exchanges with relevant stakeholders, including digital labour platforms, associations of persons performing platform work, experts from academia, Member States and international organisations and representatives of civil society.
(16) This Directive should apply to persons performing platform work in the Union who have, or who based on an assessment of facts may be deemed to have, an employment contract or employment relationship as defined by the law, collective agreements or practice in force in the Member States, with consideration to the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. This should include situations where the employment status of the person performing platform work is not clear, so as to allow correct determination of that status. The provisions on algorithmic management which are related to the processing of personal data should also apply to genuine self-employed and other persons performing platform work in the Union who do not have an employment relationship.
(17) This Directive should apply to all digital labour platforms, irrespective of their place of establishment and irrespective of the law otherwise applicable, provided that the platform work organised through that digital labour platform is performed in the Union. A targeted set of mandatory rules should be established at Union level to ensure minimum rights on working conditions in platform work.
(18) Digital labour platforms differ from other online platforms in that they organise work performed by individuals at the request, one-off or repeated, of the recipient of a service provided by the platform. Organising work performed by individuals should imply at a minimum a significant role in matching the demand for the service with the supply of labour by an individual who has a contractual relationship with the digital labour platform and who is available to perform a specific task, and can include other activities such as processing payments. Online platforms which do not organise the work performed by individuals but merely provide the means by which service providers can reach the end-user, for instance by advertising offers or requests for services or aggregating and displaying available service providers in a specific area, without any further involvement, should not be considered a digital labour platform. The definition of digital labour platforms should not include providers of a service whose primary purpose is to exploit or share assets, such as short-term rental of accommodation. It should be limited to providers of a service for which the organisation of work performed by the individual, such as transport of persons or goods or cleaning, constitutes a necessary and essential and not merely a minor and purely ancillary component.
(19) To combat false self-employment in platform work and to facilitate the correct determination of the employment status, Member States should have appropriate procedures in place to prevent and address misclassification of the employment status of persons performing platform work. The aim of those procedures should be to ascertain the existence of an employment relationship as defined by national law, collective agreements or practice with consideration to the case-law of the Court of Justice, and, where such employment relationship exists, to ensure full compliance with Union law applicable to workers as well as national labour law, collective agreements and social protection rules. Where self-employment or an intermediate employment status – as defined at national level – is the correct employment status, rights and obligations pursuant to that status should apply.
(20) In its case law, the Court of Justice has established criteria for determining the status of a worker 62 . The interpretation by the Court of Justice of those criteria should be taken into account in the implementation of this Directive. The abuse of the status of self-employed persons, as defined in national law, either at national level or in cross-border situations, is a form of falsely declared work that is frequently associated with undeclared work. False self-employment occurs when a person is declared to be self-employed while fulfilling the conditions characteristic of an employment relationship, in order to avoid certain legal or fiscal obligations.
(21) The principle of primacy of facts, meaning that the determination of the existence of an employment relationship should be guided primarily by the facts relating to the actual performance of work, including its remuneration, and not by the parties’ description of the relationship, in accordance with the 2006 Employment Relationship Recommendation (No 198) of the International Labour Organisation, is particularly relevant in the case of platform work, where contractual conditions are often unilaterally determined by one party.
(22) Where the existence of an employment relationship is established based on facts, the party acting as employer should be clearly identified and that party should fulfil all the obligations resulting from its role as employer.
(23) Ensuring correct determination of the employment status should not prevent the improvement of working conditions of genuine self-employed persons performing platform work. Where a digital labour platform decides – on a purely voluntary basis or in agreement with the persons concerned – to pay for social protection, accident insurance or other forms of insurance, training measures or similar benefits to self-employed persons working through that platform, those benefits as such should not be regarded as determining elements indicating the existence of an employment relationship.
(24) When digital labour platforms control certain elements of the performance of work, they act like employers in an employment relationship. Direction and control, or legal subordination, is an essential element of the definition of an employment relationship in the Member States and in the case-law of the Court of Justice. Therefore contractual relationships in which digital labour platforms exert a certain level of control over certain elements of the performance of work should be deemed, by virtue of a legal presumption, to be an employment relationship between the platform and the person performing platform work through it. As a result, that person should be classified as a worker having all the rights and obligations in accordance with that status, as laid down in national and Union law, collective agreements and practice. The legal presumption should apply in all relevant administrative and legal proceedings and should benefit the person performing platform work. Authorities in charge of verifying the compliance with or enforcing relevant legislation, such as labour inspectorates, social protection bodies or tax authorities, should also be able to rely on that presumption. Member States should put in place a national framework to reduce litigation and increase legal certainty.
(25) Criteria indicating that a digital labour platform controls the performance of work should be included in the Directive in order to make the legal presumption operational and facilitate the enforcement of workers’ rights. Those criteria should be inspired by Union and national case law and take into account national concepts of the employment relationship. The criteria should include concrete elements showing that the digital labour platform, for instance, determines in practice and not merely recommends the working conditions or the remuneration or both, gives instructions on how the work is to be performed or prevents the person performing platform work from developing business contacts with potential clients. In order for it to be effective in practice, two criteria should be always fulfilled to trigger the application of the presumption,. At the same time, the criteria should not cover situations where the persons performing platform work are genuine self-employed. Genuine self-employed persons are themselves responsible vis-à-vis their customers for how they perform their work and the quality of their outputs. The freedom to choose working hours or periods of absence, to refuse tasks, to use subcontractors or substitutes or to work for any third party is characteristic of genuine self-employment. Therefore, de facto restricting such discretions by a number of conditions or through a system of sanctions, should also be considered as an element of controlling the performance of work. Closely supervising the performance of work or thoroughly verifying the quality of the results of that work, including through electronic means, which does not merely consist in using reviews or ratings by the recipients of the service, should also be considered as an element of controlling the performance of work. At the same time, digital labour platforms should be able to design their technical interfaces in a way to ensure good consumer experience. Measures or rules which are required by law or which are necessary to safeguard the health and safety of the recipients of the service should not be understood as controlling the performance of work.
(26) Effective implementation of the legal presumption through appropriate measures, such as disseminating information to the public, developing guidance and strengthening controls and field inspections is essential to ensure legal certainty and transparency for all parties involved. These measures should take into account the specific situation of start-ups to support the entrepreneurial potential and the conditions for the sustainable growth of digital labour platforms in the Union.
(27) In the interest of legal certainty, the legal presumption should not have any retroactive legal effects before the transposition date of this Directive and should therefore only apply to the period starting from that date, including for contractual relationships entered into before and still ongoing on that date. Claims relating to the possible existence of an employment relationship before that date and resulting rights and obligations until that date should therefore be assessed only on the basis of national law and Union law predating this Directive.
(28) The relationship between a person performing platform work and a digital labour platform may not meet the requirements of an employment relationship in accordance with the definition laid down in the law, collective agreements or practice in force of the respective Member State with consideration to the case-law of the Court of Justice, even though the digital labour platform controls the performance of work on a given aspect. Member States should ensure the possibility to rebut the legal presumption in legal or administrative proceedings or both by proving, on the basis of the aforementioned definition, that the relationship in question is not an employment relationship. The shift in the burden of proof to digital labour platforms is justified by the fact that they have a complete overview of all factual elements determining the relationship, in particular the algorithms through which they manage their operations. Legal proceedings and administrative proceedings initiated by the digital labour platforms in order to rebut the legal presumption should not have a suspensive effect on the application of the legal presumption. A successful rebuttal of the presumption in administrative proceedings should not preclude the application of the presumption in subsequent judicial proceedings. When the person performing platform work who is the subject of the presumption seeks to rebut the legal presumption, the digital labour platform should be required to assist that person, notably by providing all relevant information held by the platform in respect of that person. Member States should provide the necessary guidance for procedures to rebut the legal presumption.
(29) While Regulation (EU) 2016/679 establishes the general framework for the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data, it is necessary to lay down rules addressing the concerns that are specific in the processing of personal data in the context of platform work. This Directive provides for more specific rules in the context of platform work, including to ensure the protection of the rights and freedoms in respect of the processing of employees' personal data within the meaning of Article 88 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679. In this context, terms relating to the protection of personal data in this Directive should be understood in light of the definitions set out in Regulation (EU) 2016/679.
(30) In addition to rights and obligations provided in this Directive, rights and obligations provided in Regulation (EU) 2016/679 continue to apply when personal data are processed. Articles 13, 14 and 15 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 require data controllers to ensure transparency towards data subjects on the collection and processing of personal data. Moreover, Article 22(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 provides for the data subjects’ right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning him or her or similarly significantly affects him or her, subject to the exceptions provided for in paragraph 2 of that article. Those obligations apply also to digital labour platforms.
(31) This Directive is without prejudice to Articles 13, 14, 15 and 22 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, except for Articles 13(2)(f), 14(2)(g) and 15(1)(h) thereof, in relation to which Article 6 of this Directive provides for more specific rules in the context of platform work, including to ensure the protection of the rights and freedoms in respect of the processing of employees' personal data within the meaning of Article 88 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679.
(32) Digital labour platforms should be subject to transparency obligations in relation to automated monitoring and decision-making systems that are used to monitor, supervise or evaluate the work performance through electronic means; and automated decision-making systems which are used to take or support decisions that significantly affect working conditions, including access of persons performing platform work to work assignments, their earnings, their occupational safety and health, their working time, their promotion and their contractual status, including the restriction, suspension or termination of their account. In addition to what is provided in Regulation (EU) 2016/679, information concerning such systems should also be provided where decisions are not solely based on automated processing, provided that they are supported by automated systems. It should also be specified which kind of information should be provided to persons performing platform work regarding such automated systems, as well as in which form and when it should be provided. The obligation of the controller under Articles 13, 14 and 15 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 to provide the data subject with certain information in relation to the processing of personal data concerning the data subject as well as with access to such data should continue to apply in the context of platform work. Information on automated monitoring and decision-making systems should also be provided to representatives of persons performing platform work and to national labour authorities at their request, in order to enable them to exercise their functions.
(33) Digital labour platforms should not be required to disclose the detailed functioning of their automated monitoring and decision-making systems, including algorithms, or other detailed data that contains commercial secrets or is protected by intellectual property rights. However, the result of those considerations should not be a refusal to provide all the information required by this Directive.
(34) Articles 5 and 6 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 require that personal data are processed in a lawful, fair and transparent manner. Digital labour platforms should therefore not be allowed to process any personal data concerning persons performing platform work that are not intrinsically connected to and strictly necessary for the performance of the contract between those persons and the digital labour platform. Article 6(5) of this Directive provides for more specific rules in the context of platform work, including to ensure the protection of the rights and freedoms in respect of the processing of employees' personal data within the meaning of Article 88 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679.
(35) Digital labour platforms make extensive use of automated monitoring and decision-making systems in managing their human resources. Monitoring by electronic means can be intrusive and decisions taken or supported by such systems directly affect the persons performing platform work, who might not have a direct contact with a human manager or supervisor. Digital labour platforms should therefore regularly monitor and evaluate the impact of individual decisions taken or supported by automated monitoring and decision-making systems on working conditions. Digital labour platforms should ensure sufficient human resources for this purpose. The persons charged by the digital labour platform with the function of monitoring should have the necessary competence, training and authority to exercise that function and should be protected from dismissal, disciplinary measures or other adverse treatment for overriding automated decisions or suggestions for decisions. In addition to obligations under Article 22 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Article 7(1) and (3) of this Directive provides for distinct obligations of digital labour platforms in relation to human monitoring of the impact of individual decisions taken or supported by automated systems, which apply as specific rules in the context of platform work, including to ensure the protection of the rights and freedoms in respect of the processing of employees' personal data within the meaning of Article 88 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679.
(36) Article 22(3) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 requires data controllers to implement suitable measures to safeguard data subjects’ rights and freedoms and legitimate interests in cases where the latter are subject to decisions based solely on automated processing. That provision requires, as a minimum, the data subject’s right to obtain human intervention on the part of the controller, to express his or her point of view and to contest the decision. Those requirements apply also to digital labour platforms. Article 8 of this Directive provides for more specific rules in the context of platform work, including to ensure the protection of the rights and freedoms in respect of the processing of employees' personal data within the meaning of Article 88 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679.
(37) In that context, persons performing platform work should have the right to obtain an explanation from the digital labour platform for a decision, the lack of decision or a set of decisions taken or supported by automated systems that significantly affect their working conditions. For that purpose the digital labour platform should provide the possibility for them to discuss and clarify the facts, circumstances and reasons for such decisions with a human contact person at the digital labour platform. In addition, digital labour platforms should provide the person performing platform work with a written statement of reasons for any decision to restrict, suspend or terminate that person’s account, to refuse the remuneration for work performed by that person, or affecting his or her contractual status, as such decisions are likely to have significant negative effects on persons performing platform work, in particular their potential earnings. Where the explanation or reasons obtained are not satisfactory or where persons performing platform work consider their rights infringed, they should also have the right to request the digital labour platform to review the decision and to obtain a substantiated reply within a reasonable period of time. Where such decisions infringe those persons’ rights, such as labour rights or the right to non-discrimination, the digital labour platform should rectify such decisions without delay or, where that is not possible, provide adequate compensation.
(38) Council Directive 89/391/EEC 63 introduces measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work, including the obligation for employers to assess the occupational health and safety risks. As automated monitoring and decision-making systems potentially have significant impact on the physical and mental health of persons performing platform work, digital labour platforms should evaluate those risks, assess whether the safeguards of the systems are appropriate to address those risks and take appropriate preventive and protective measures.
(39) Directive 2002/14/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 64 establishes a general framework for informing and consulting employees in the Union. The introduction of or substantial changes in the use of automated monitoring and decision-making systems by digital labour platforms have direct impacts on the work organisation and individual working conditions of platform workers. Additional measures are necessary to ensure that digital labour platforms inform and consult platform workers or their representatives before such decisions are taken, at the appropriate level and, given the technical complexity of algorithmic management systems, with the assistance of an expert chosen by the platform workers or their representatives in a concerted manner where needed.
(40) Persons who do not have an employment relationship constitute a significant part of the persons performing platform work. The impact of automated monitoring and decision-making systems used by digital labour platforms on their working conditions and their earning opportunities is similar to that on platform workers. Therefore, the rights in Articles 6, 7 and 8 of this Directive pertaining to the protection of natural persons in relation to the processing of personal data in the context of algorithmic management, namely those regarding transparency on automated monitoring and decision-making systems, restrictions to process or collect personal data, human monitoring and review of significant decisions, should also apply to persons in the Union performing platform work who do not have an employment contract or employment relationship. The rights pertaining to health and safety at work and information and consultation of platform workers or their representatives, which are specific to workers in view of Union law, should not apply to them. Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 provides safeguards regarding fairness and transparency for self-employed persons performing platform work, provided that they are considered business users within the meaning of that Regulation. Where such safeguards conflict with elements of specific rights and obligations laid down in this Directive, the specific provisions of Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 should prevail in respect of business users.
(41) In order to ensure that digital labour platforms comply with labour legislation and regulations, social security contribution obligations, social security coordination and other relevant rules, in particular if they are established in another country than the Member State in which the platform worker is performing work, digital labour platforms should declare work performed by platform workers to the competent labour and social protection authorities of the Member State in which the work is performed, in accordance with the rules and procedures laid down in the law of the Member States concerned.
(42) Information on the number of persons performing platform work through digital labour platforms on a regular basis, their contractual or employment status and the general terms and conditions applicable to those contractual relationships is essential to support labour inspectorates, social protection bodies and other relevant authorities in correctly determining the employment status of persons performing platform work and in ensuring compliance with legal obligations as well as representatives of persons performing platform work in the exercise of their representative functions and should therefore be made accessible to them. Those authorities and representatives should also have the right to ask digital labour platforms for additional clarifications and details, such as basic data on working conditions regarding working time and remuneration.
(43) An extensive system of enforcement provisions for the social acquis in the Union has been developed, elements of which should be applied to this Directive in order to ensure that persons performing platform work have access to effective and impartial dispute resolution and a right to redress, including adequate compensation. Specifically, having regard to the fundamental nature of the right to effective legal protection, persons performing platform work should continue to enjoy such protection even after the end of the employment or other contractual relationship giving rise to an alleged breach of rights under this Directive.
(44) Representatives of persons performing platform work should be able to represent one or several persons performing platform work in any judicial or administrative procedure to enforce any of the rights or obligations arising from this Directive. Bringing claims on behalf of or supporting several persons performing platform work is a way to facilitate proceedings that would not have been brought otherwise because of procedural and financial barriers or a fear of reprisals.
(45) Platform work is characterised by the lack of a common workplace where workers can get to know each other and communicate with each other and with their representatives, also in view of defending their interests towards the employer. It is therefore necessary to create digital communication channels, in line with the digital labour platforms’ work organisation, where persons performing platform work can exchange with each other and be contacted by their representatives. Digital labour platforms should create such communication channels within their digital infrastructure or through similarly effective means, while respecting the protection of personal data and refraining from accessing or monitoring those communications.
(46) In administrative or judicial proceedings regarding the correct determination of the employment status of persons performing platform work, the elements regarding the organisation of work allowing to establish the employment status and in particular whether the digital labour platform controls certain elements of the performance of work may be in the possession of the digital labour platform and not easily accessible to persons performing platform work and competent authorities. National courts or competent authorities should therefore be able to order the digital labour platform to disclose any relevant evidence which lies in their control, including confidential information, subject to effective measures to protect such information.
(47) Given that Article 6, Article 7(1) and (3) and Article 8 of this Directive provide for specific rules in the context of platform work to ensure the protection of employees' personal data within the meaning of Article 88 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and that Article 10 of this Directive applies those safeguards also in case of persons without employment contract or employment relationship, the national supervisory authorities referred to in Article 51 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 should be competent to monitor the application of those safeguards. Chapters VI, VII and VIII of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 should apply in terms of procedural framework for the enforcement of those safeguards, in particular as regards supervision, cooperation and consistency mechanisms, remedies, liability and penalties, including the competence to impose administrative fines up to the amount referred to in Article 83(5) of that Regulation.
(48) Automated monitoring and decision-making systems used in the context of platform work involve the processing of personal data and affect the working conditions and rights of persons performing platform work. They therefore raise issues of data protection law as well as labour and social protection law. Data protection supervisory authorities and relevant labour and social protection authorities should therefore cooperate in the enforcement of this Directive, including by exchanging relevant information with each other, without prejudice to the independence of data protection supervisory authorities.
(49) Since the objective of this Directive, namely to improve working conditions in platform work, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of the need to establish common minimum requirements, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.
(50) This Directive lays down minimum requirements, thus leaving untouched Member States’ prerogative to introduce and maintain provisions which are more favourable for platform workers. Rights acquired under the existing legal framework should continue to apply, unless more favourable provisions are introduced by this Directive. The implementation of this Directive cannot be used to reduce existing rights set out in existing Union or national law in this field, nor can it constitute valid grounds for reducing the general level of protection in the field covered by this Directive.
(51) In implementing this Directive Member States should avoid imposing administrative, financial and legal constraints in a way which would hold back the creation and development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Member States should assess the impact of their transposition measures on start-ups and on small and medium-sized enterprises in order to ensure that they are not disproportionately affected, giving specific attention to micro-enterprises and to the administrative burden. Member States should also publish the results of such assessments.
(52) The Member States may entrust the social partners with the implementation of this Directive, where the social partners jointly request to do so and provided that the Member States take all the necessary steps to ensure that they can at all times guarantee the results sought under this Directive. They should also, in accordance with national law and practice, take adequate measures to ensure that the social partners are effectively involved and to promote and enhance social dialogue with a view to implementing the provisions of this Directive.
(53) In accordance with the Joint Political Declaration of 28 September 2011 of Member States and the Commission on explanatory documents, 65 Member States have undertaken to accompany, in justified cases, the notification of their transposition measures with one or more documents explaining the relationship between the components of a directive and the corresponding parts of national transposition instruments. With regard to this Directive, the legislator considers the transmission of such documents to be justified.
(54) The European Data Protection Supervisor was consulted in accordance with Article 42(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council 66 and delivered an opinion on XX XXXX 67 .