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Saatja: "SM Info" Saaja: "MKM info" Teema: FW: EU Platform Work Directive: Today we discover if the future of the EU will be one of cyber-slavery or not Kuupäev: 2024-03-11 14:43 Tere, Edastame pöördumise. Dokumendihaldus SOM From: ELSU admins <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, March 11, 2024 3:25 PM To: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Cc: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: EU Platform Work Directive: Today we discover if the future of the EU will be one of cyber-slavery or not Today, all eyes are on the positions of governments of Estonia, Greece, Germany and France vis-a -vis the EU Platform Work Directive. Today will determine whether companies such as Deliveroo and Uber that over the past few years and right in front of our eyes, have been actively reducing millions of mostly non-European workers to becoming mere beasts of burden, will finally be subject to minimal regulation at European level. We know from the Uber Files that Emmanuel Macron has very foolhardily chosen to throw his lot in with these companies and their off-shore hedge fund investors. The question is whether, under sustained scrutiny and the distinct possibility of future ethics investigations, will the governments of Germany, Estonia and Greece blindly follow Macron over the same ideological cliff by continuing to block the EU Platform Work Directive despite over 5 years of consensus building at every level of the European institutions? Please see attached and below some of what was submitted to the Irish Parliamentary Committee last week. We now have the support of Irish political parties both in and out of government on this, including the pro-business Fine Gael party who had been subjected to the same lobbying that Macron succumbed to. Please see the most recent reply from the former Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Richard Bruton and the notes from our last meeting with the current Taoiseach's office on this subject. The meeting is scheduled for 2.40pm Brussels time, 1.40pm GMT/Irish Time. It can be followed here: https://europa.eu/!VwCVv7 https://video.consilium.europa.eu/event/en/27379 For further context please see the Oireachtas Committee discussion on Platform Work last Wednesday in Dublin: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/oireachtas-tv/video-archive/committees/9104 Example of recent social media posts on the topic: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4OHnXGxiLn/?igsh=MTQ3cGN6cjloY2JmdQ== https://www.tiktok.com/@martydoesnotplay/video/7345055463077088544 Short Documentary made in Dublin: 'The Invisible Ones',: https://youtu.be/fID5PGLv54Q Thank you for paying attention, as the Manic Street Preachers warned us, "if you tolerate this, then your children will be next". Kind Regards, Fiachra Ó Luain Labour Rights' Officer English Language Students' Union of Ireland +353858163388 ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Richard Bruton <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2024 at 15:28 Subject: RE: ELSU Submission to this morning's Enterprise Committee's discussion on Platform Work ahead of Monday's EU Directive showdown To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Fiachra, Thank you for your valuable submission. Kind regards, Richard Bruton, TD Dail Eireann, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. 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From: ELSU admins <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Wednesday, March 6, 2024 6:04 AM To: Enterprise Trade and Employment <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Cc: Maurice Quinlivan <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; Mick Barry <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; Richard Bruton <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; FrancisNoel Duffy <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; Joe Flaherty <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; James OConnor <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; Louise OReilly <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; Matt Shanahan <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; David Stanton <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; Garret Ahearn <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; Ollie Crowe <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; Roisin Garvey <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; Paul Gavan <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; Marie Sherlock <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; Minister <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; External - Taoiseach <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; External - Tanaiste <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >; Ministers Office <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: ELSU Submission to this morning's Enterprise Committee's discussion on Platform Work ahead of Monday's EU Directive showdown Dear Chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, A number of your committee members, both TDs and Senators, contacted us to strongly urge us to make the attached submission ahead of this morning's important meeting to discuss Platform Work. We have reviewed the welcome and useful submissions by SIPTU, Eurofound and Social Justice Ireland and feel that the document attached complements those submissions and will further assist your committee's members in teasing out the issues to a fuller extent. It was suggested that we request of you that this document be added as an item on the agenda in lieu of our attendance and oral contributions. Having read the other submissions, it is vital that all those in attendance this morning understand that the EU Platform Directive is not dead yet. Next Monday the 11th of March there will be one final, last ditch attempt to achieve an agreement in Brussels. Ireland's support for this is crucial. It is vital that your members understand this so that we can know exactly whereabouts in the air the ball is at this moment, so we can anticipate our next passes and tackles. We remind you that we have been engaged directly with the Taoiseach and the Department of Entreprise, Trade and Employment on these issues since 2021, we organised the recent Valentine's Day Strike of Delivery Workers and were the only Irish delegation to the recent Forum on Platform Work in the European Parliament this past 21st and 22nd of February. We can provide Oireachtas members with the minutes of our June 2023 meeting with the Taoiseach's office and the senior Departmental officials who were present that day, we also have the full audio of the original meeting with the current Taoiseach in March of 2021 and can release this when required to verify what was discussed during that original meeting, if needs be. We trust that all of this information is of assistance and you can add this document as an item to be discussed during the meeting that is scheduled for 9.30am later this morning. Kind Regards, Fiachra Ó Luain Labour Rights' Officer, English Language Students' Union of Ireland +353858163388 -- Facebook: <https://www.facebook.com/ELSUIreland/> https://www.facebook.com/ELSUIreland/ Instagram: <https://www.instagram.com/elsu_ireland/> elsu_ireland Twitter: <https://twitter.com/ElsuIreland> @ELSUIreland Website: <http://www.elsu.ie/> www.elsu.ie POLITICS Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael reveal prejudices on labour contracts Some party representatives ran for cover on EU directive laying down presumption worker is an “employee”, while campaigners against the likes of Uber and Amazon faced untold abuse finalised, and transposed into national law of UK Supreme Court, expressed concern right up By Fiachra Ó Luain P Member states, until after the EU Council until the December 12 vote that the Fine Gael latform work is work organised presidencies of Sweden’s Right-wing coalition MEP for Midlands-North-West, Maria Walsh, the through an app, such as UberEats, and then Spain’s Pedro Sanchez-led Left-wing only Irish MEP on the EMPL Committee, would Deliveroo and Just Eat. coalition. join her EPP colleagues in abstaining or voting In December 2022, the Despite intense and sustained lobbying from against the definitions of Article 4. This, in his Employment (EMPL) Committee of platform-dependent companies aimed opinion, would have neutered the eventual the European Parliament considered the Terms particularly at European People’s Party (EPP) Directive. Walsh’s Swedish EPP colleague, Sara of Reference for the new EU Platform Work MEPs, the key Article 4 pertaining to the Skyttedal MEP appears now to be leading efforts Directive, passing the most progressive version “presumption of employment” was passed by to reject the mandate and reopen the Directive of the amendments on offer. A plenary vote on the European Parliament and it is on this there for amendments, to further water down an February 2 reaffirmed this decision. is most focus. As it stands, the burden of proof already compromised agreement. Sweden, currently holding the Presidency of will be on such companies to prove that any Walsh has still not clarified how she voted on the EU Council, is under pressure to reopen workers they want to regard as self-employed December 12 but, before the vote, committee debate on consensus-agreed definitions of are genuinely self-employed. Otherwise they are members were warned that any MEP who voted worker status. This means that the final Terms by default to be considered employees. against or abstained on measures designed to of Reference for the Directive may not be Wexford-native James Farrar, whose legal protect the welfare of workers, would be plied case secured employment rights for 70,000+ with Freedom of Information requests pertaining workers in 2021 after vanquishing Uber in the to any lobbying directed at them and their parties. All eyes are on such matters following exposure last year of the ‘Uber files’ in which Uber Chief-lobbyist in Europe turned whistle- blower, Mark MacGann exposed the extent to which Fine Gael and other EPP members had In 2021 members been lobbied by companies in favour of ‘light- from both of Ireland’s touch’ regulation. International recognition of the rights of main coalition oppressed app workers to date has been largely down to recent landmark legal cases and parties supported the organisation by workers, activists and unions introduction of a ‘third through the likes of the European Transport Workers Federation and Worker Info Exchange category’ of worker, that study and challenge the algorithmic neither employee nor exploitation of workers. In March 2020 Stamp Two (student) visa- self-employed, but this holding delivery workers had a meeting through was dropped by Fianna English and Portuguese with then Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise Leo Varadkar, supported Fáil and Fine Gael after by SIPTU and others familiar with the issues faced by non-EU workers and students in workers expressed their Ireland. In the months preceding, a series of opinion that this was not well-attended meetings took place where workers expressed their concerns to Fianna Fáil what was needed Senator Mary Fitzpatrick, members of An Garda Siochána, Sinn Féin, Labour, People Before Profit and the Socialist Party. 1 April 2023  Platform workers’ rights to an occupational pension, no paid sick, Varadkar held a subsequent meeting with paternity or maternity leave, no redundancy pay, Deliveroo and was to get back to us, as was no fixed breaks or rest periods, no paid annual leave or public holidays”. his Assistant Secretary; but over two years Revenue is the other “big loser” as “huge later we are still waiting for both losses in PRSI contributions mean serious consequences for the public finances and the Increasing violence and decreasing pay were who for a number of years have been receiving Exchequer”. the main issues raised by workers present at passive income from the many non-European Responding to the passage of the these meetings though the problematic issue of workers who need to rent these accounts at up amendments through the EMPL Committee, worker misclassification was kicked down the to €100/week in order to make ends meet here. former MEP and PBP spokesperson for workers’ road by the Department as an issue that would They characterised efforts to improve worker rights, Paul Murphy TD, welcomed the news as need to be legislated for at European level safety, pay and conditions in emotive the “result of workers and trade unions at a before it could be dealt with here, nationally. McCarthyite terms, more relevant to the fault national and European level pushing for such Leo Varadkar stated that before this meeting lines of recent Lula/Bolsonaro divisions in Brazil legislation...It will also need to be matched with he had not had any contact with Deliveroo and than the domestic situation here in Ireland, in on the ground organising - ultimately the best did not know the extent of the exploitation that an attempt to inhibit the involvement of the defence of a worker’s rights is to be organised occurs through the apps. He suggested exploited workers here who may have arrived to in a union”. Workplace Relations Commission scrutiny of Ireland from diverse political backgrounds but Labour Senator Marie Sherlock focused on Deliveroo practices. He held a subsequent are all facing the same problems here. another key element of the amendments that meeting with Deliveroo and was to get back to Sinn Féin’s Louise O’Reilly, who helped the were passed, human oversight of artificial us, as was his Assistant Secretary Clare Dunne workers prepare for the Varadkar meeting, intelligence or algorithmic management of who said she would send on a relevant contact outlines the problems arising from the practice workers: “We need to recognise that it is a in the Department of Social Protection regarding of bogus self-employment as being the creation growing part of the labour market and ensure the status of workers. Over two years later and of ‘winners’ in the form of employers who fail to that the algorithms managing workers are we are still waiting for both. classify their workers as employees. They win transparent and regulated”. Sherlock launched After the meeting with Leo Varadkar, workers because they have “no PRSI to pay, no pension the ‘Protection of Employment (Platform and organisers who had been present were contributions to make, no sick, paternity or Workers and Bogus Self- Employment) Bill subjected to a series of concerted attacks based maternity leave to pay, no redundancy 2021’, in the same month as our meeting with on anti-solidarity disinformation and smears, payments, no annual leave or public holiday the current Taoiseach. violence and bike-theft, leading to at least one pay”. Leo Varadkar, who in March 2020 quoted worker being coerced into disavowing their Meanwhile those losing out are the workers Terminator’s “There is no fate but what we make activism and moving out of Dublin. Those who have “less entitlement to social welfare for ourselves”, has yet to say if he will accept and behind this were, among others, individuals supports if and when they need them, no access support the version of the amendments already April 2023 2 agreed by consensus twice in the European Parliament. The interdepartmental Rubik’s cube of work Nor has any member of Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil permissions for migrants yields a passive responded to requests for a statement on these recent developments from a party perspective. income for the official account owners We do know that in 2021 members from both from the labour of vulnerable of the main coalition parties supported the introduction of a “third category” of worker, non-European workers who have to neither employee nor self- employed, but this was dropped by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael after risk life-and-limb while working without workers made clear that this was not what was insurance, leading the basic payment per needed nor was it something that had been asked for by workers. delivery for a Deliveroo worker in Ireland to The only coalition members who responded drop from €4.39 to €2.90. to our requests for comment are the Greens, with Dublin MEP Ciarán Cuffe stating that he is “very happy with the agreement” as it will help stop “the race to the bottom whereby companies that treat their workers fairly are crowded out of the market by their less scrupulous competitors. The freedom to work whenever and wherever you want has become a dystopian future for many. We must ensure that platform working is regulated and produces decent pay and conditions for all”. A spokesperson for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment stated: “Ireland has mechanisms for the determination of employment status and supports the ambition behind this EU proposal on improving working conditions in Platform Work”. To square this circle the national governments are going to have to solve the interdepartmental Rubik’s cube of work permissions for non-EU do they make any attempt to identify the workers Success to date has only been possible migrants. In Ireland the bulk of this work is done who seek this equipment from them. From 2019 through meaningful multi-lingual engagement by those on Stamp Two visas trying to provide the estimated number of Deliveroo accounts in between migrant workers of all backgrounds, the for their education and survival in Irish cities. Ireland has jumped from 2500 to 5000, while International Transport Workers Federation and Stamp 2 workers are prohibited by the terms of the basic payment per delivery for a Deliveroo others, with the welcome support of parties their visas from being self-employed and worker in Ireland has dropped by 30%, from across the Irish political spectrum. therefore cannot legally be platform workers €4.39 to €2.90. Workers appreciate when parties and even if companies such as Deliveroo insist on At a mouse-click in London, significant drops politicians listen to their concerns without trying purporting to designate them as such. Such in pay often come without warning, and always to impose their own ideological or party agendas, companies are of course aware that their with zero consent from workers here. Moreover respecting the space in which an interlingual business models flout such basic employment the company closed its Dublin office during the consensus is sustainably built within this rules. same period and now operates everything in emerging demographic of precarious workers in They often earn less than the minimum wage Ireland, including the gathering of metadata Ireland. doing deliveries, and are currently prohibited from workers here, remotely from London. It is Platform workers will remain at risk from from owning their own accounts on platforms unclear as to what extent they have been paying evolving technology for the forseeable future for such as Deliveroo and UberEats, forcing them to any corporation tax here, despite Deliveroo example the National Artificial Intelligence ‘rent’ these accounts from Europeans or Stamp having vastly expanded its business here. Irish Strategy was recently launched by Robert Troy 4 visa holders who, unlike Stamp 2 visa holders, Amazon Prime members are now being offered and Tánaiste Micheál Martin who pushed for the can legally work full-time and can be legally free deliveries via ‘Deliveroo Plus’ following a use of artificial-intelligence technologies in the “self-employed”. deal with Amazon, as pay and conditions workplace. Unsurprisingly, there was no mention This results in a passive income for the official continue to deteriorate. ‘The Invisible Ones’ is a of safeguards. account owners from the labour of more short YouTube documentary on the plight of In the era of plutocracy and technocracy, vulnerable Stamp Two workers who have to risk Dublin delivery workers by Jesús Tiscareño and workers are always at least one step behind. life-and-limb, uninsured. From what can be fellow Griffith College Stamp Two students. Notwithstanding this, meaningful engagement observed, these companies have built their Minds have again focused since February 28 and international organisation is bearing fruit, business model on such “grey-area” dynamics. when Revenue sent out tax demands to delivery proving that passivity to algorithmic management Whenever they make a rare appearance to account holders, after over five years, on the and exploitation by Platforms Giants is not the distribute their branded bags and clothing to very same day that the European Court of Justice fate that we are choosing for ourselves. workers here in Ireland, those working on behalf ruled against Only Fans’ attempt to avoid paying of management, at least in the case of Deliveroo, similar taxes, by passing them on to account Fiachra Ó Luain is Co-Founder of ELSU.ie, the conspicuously refuse to identify themselves nor holders. English Language Students’ Union of Ireland April 2023 3 ELSU Submission to the Enterprise, Trade and Employment Committee’s Discussion on Platform Work Houses of the Oireachtas, Dublin 9.30am Wednesday March 6th 2024 We thank the Enterprise, Trade and Employment Oireachtas Committee members who contacted us to request this submission ahead of your committee’s vital discussion on Platform Work. Next Monday, March 11th, there will be one final attempt, in this legislative cycle of the European Parliament to arrive at an agreement that could finally result in an EU Platform Work Directive. Very little public and legislative attention has been given to the significance of this for all Irish workers, partially because the majority of those who could be currently described as “platform workers” in Ireland are non-native English language speakers, who are less likely to know and defend their rights, are less likely to be registered voters and/or paid up members of a traditional general union. This is an international, Europe-wide trend, so not limited just to Ireland. At our recent meeting in Brussels, when hundreds of platform workers’ groups and unions from across the world came together to discuss the challenges faced by platform and click workers, this was one of the common themes. This has seen newer, smaller, specialist, ad-hoc unions and solidarity groups emerge to fill the void left by unions who seem to expect a pro-forma approach to organisation to be applicable and transferable to an emerging, culturally and linguistically demographics, who do not share a traditional shop floor or common language. The out-going/former head of one of the general unions in Ireland and the UK repeatedly stated that the reason why no resources would be given to organising such workers here under their watch was because, theirs was “a workers’ union and not a students’ union”, despite the fact that it is patently obvious to anyone with eyes and a heart, that those who are most exploited on our streets today are non-European students who need to work as much as possible in order to survive. There may be latent racism involved as well as the calculation that these are not “bankable” union membership candidates due to the high turnover and short legal stays associated with those engaged in such work, hence an unlikely conspiracy of exploitation arises between government, platform companies and the established unions who for at least a decade have been hedging their bets on the sector instead of being multi-lingually proactive. This results in leadership being assumed by migrant groups and their voluntary inter-lingual allies, such as the Brazilian riders in the UK who led the two recent delivery work strikes on the 2nd and 14th of February, the latter which we joined in with here in Ireland. Though the workforce is indeed often transient, the work and management practices associated with Platform Work are “here to stay” in the words of our own Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who has predicted a great expansion of platform work into new sectors right across our society. Therefore the terms and conditions associated with that work are incredibly important to every single citizen, worker, voter, candidate and party, whether they realise this yet or not. In our March 2021 meeting with the current Taoiseach, he and his officials claimed that they had not previously been aware of the fact that most of the individuals who do this platform work, at least in the delivery sector, were not either Europeans nor Stamp 4 visa holders and that the sub-rental of these delivery accounts is absolutely key to the business model of the likes of Deliveroo, UberEats and Just Eat. These companies get away with paying workers in the sector way below minimum wage because they are well aware that they are providing a way for those here on Stamp 2 visa permissions to circumvent the out-dated 1 restrictions on legal working hours of 20 hours a week as they have very few other options when it comes to making ends meet, leading them to working extra hours for way less than minimum wage. It must please be accepted by all Oireachtas members that there is no way of surviving in Dublin or any other Irish city on just 20 hours of legal work a week. That’s a maximum legal income of €254 weekly on minimum wage, out of which Stamp 2 visa holders are supposed to pay their €600 (average) rent, their food, their tuition and also save up for their follow on third level course once their two years of English tuition is complete, at exorbitant non-EU rates. That money needs to come from somewhere. Such legislative knowledge gaps only happen when Oireachtas members fail to engage with those whose fingers are most on the pulse, whether by accident than by design. Your meeting this morning is very important, but the failure to include those with the most experience at the coalface of platform work here in Ireland means that we will now all be playing catch up at best, instead of helping each other to get ahead of the curve. There seems to be a great reluctance on the part of the Irish Government to accept that their current rules around the ELE sector are pro-actively pushing law-abiding new recruits from abroad into cowed guests of the nation who have no other choice but to flout the terms of their visas if they are indeed to survive here. The objective and metric for success of the ELE schools and the DFHERIS is exponential growth of that sector, however it is becoming increasingly obvious that we are recruiting people to come to Ireland only to experience extreme poverty, including food poverty and the types of living conditions that are an agar jelly for exploitation, abuse and racism. These hellish outcomes are effective government policy for as long as they refuse to agree capacity and regulate either sector. The Irish Government should decide what our national capacity is for both students in the ELE sector and delivery accounts active in the state. Outsourcing that responsibility to narrow private interests is a recipe for disaster that turbo-charges the race to the bottom. Right now, it’s a completely hands off, laissez-faire, let-the-market-do-what-the-market-wants-to-do, greed is good and the suffering of thousands doesn’t matter, approach to how platform work and the ELE sector intersect here in Ireland. There are frequent accidents and deaths that happen in the communities affected by this unholy alliance that go unnoticed by the media and public. Under-reporting of crime, as well as Garda in-action are compounding the problem. At the end of the Valentine’s Day Strike I personally witnessed three men in balaclavas come up to a group of riders on O’Connell Street and demand the deletion of a video that showed the location of an Elephants’ Graveyard of stolen bikes with the threat of violence and future retribution. I personally called 999 and reported what was happening at the foot of the main street of our nation’s capital and waited for up to an hour afterwards and no Garda ever came. It seemed that as soon as the Garda on the other side of the line found out that it was delivery riders who were being threatened it immediately dropped down the priority list. One of the riders who was threatened at that moment told me that his preferred place to wait for orders was right there because he heard that Daniel O’Connell was our emancipator, and he felt safer in his shadow. He was not safe that day, no rider is safe any day in Ireland and it seems we always have to wait for a Thiago Cortes, or a Josh Dunne, or a Joao Ferreira or a Caio Benicio situation before our elected representatives say they will get involved and do something, they call us for a day or two, and then interest fades again until the next time blood is spilled on our streets. This is the sad reality and you know this is true, we’ve been doing this tragic dance for years now. At the moment, in its current form, platform work represents a return to feudalism in Europe, this time controlled by AI, algorithms and off-shore hedge funds instead of lords and kings, cyber-serfdom if you 2 will. With no government or human oversight, platforms can at any given moment, access and weaponise real time data from thousands of workers, either online or offline and manipulate the supply and demand of workers so that there is only ever one outcome, ever-decreasing pay for an ever-increasing amount of time spent working. Though we now have rules that protect employees from being contacted by their employers after they finish their normal working hours, no such protections exist for the thousands of platform workers in Irish cities who feel they need to work every waking hour in order to survive life here as the cost of living increases and payments continue to drop. Riders who are attempting to get to sleep, take a day off, attend class, spend time with their friends or loved ones, or indeed go on strike or engage in collective action are constantly being bombarded with pop-up prompts, incentives and even threats to remain available and work as the platform wants them to work, always for less and less pay. Think of the worst type of Instagram or TikTok addiction and add the element of economic survival and the algorithmic conditioning of the most precarious and vulnerable members of society and you might begin to imagine just how dystopian life has become for thousands of workers here in Ireland and millions across Europe. During the Valentine’s Day strike, ELSU voxpopped some of the hundreds of riders who travelled from the GPO to Leinster House to demand better pay and treatment by the platforms. One of the most poignant answers to the question of “Why are you protesting today?” was from a Brazilian rider who heart- breakingly remarked how he came from a family that only escaped slavery in Brazil a couple of generations ago, yet now he feels that he was currently being actively enslaved by platforms here in Ireland again himself. This is not an exaggeration, the regression associated with the current practices of Platform Work go against the entire trajectory of European history since the beginning of the early modern era. When workers feel that they do not control the number of hours they need to work in order to survive, or the payment they receive, it is effectively a new form of cyber-serfdom that we are allowing to take root here in the Irish Republic in the 21st century. That’s on you, if you are a member of the Oirechtas, I’m very sorry to say so, but this is happening on your watch. Cyber slaves are cowering, come rain, wind or shine in the shadow of our very own O’Connell. This Valentine’s Day, hundreds of delivery workers attended protests and actions in different Irish cities hundreds more stayed at home and took the opportunity for a rare, needed and well-deserved day off in conjunction with their counterparts in the UK and elsewhere on that day, there was fantastic support from the Irish public, media and from some politicians. Riders really appreciated the public’s sympathy and support, thanks to the media for doing such a good job at relaying their messages. Another pertinent message that people responded to was the fact that Deliveroo charges our local restaurants a 35% commission, while only charging McDonalds and Burger King 10%. That’s another example of how these platforms represent a public health risk as well as an assault on Main Street. This sort of national Irish conversation was something that London-based Deliveroo had to try to immediately destroy and undermine through lies, intimidation and threats. In the days immediately after the very successful strike, Deliveroo baselessly accused riders in Ireland of “physically preventing” other riders from collecting orders and of “tampering” with their vehicles. It then said that accounts of those suspected would be deactivated. This was a particularly malicious move, there were zero examples of protesting riders preventing other riders from collecting orders in any part of the Republic of Ireland. The subtext of this email was, if a worker dares stop work for one day to protest payments dropping by over 50%, then Deliveroo could deactivate that account, an account that is normally rented from someone else, so there is double the pressure on the worker to put up or shut up. 3 This is the sort of gas-lighting and coercive control that Deliveroo tried to exert on the riders who stood up for workers’ rights here in Ireland on Valentine’s Day. These companies need to be fined by the billions for this sort of verbal, emotional and economic abuse of our non-native English speakers and this is where we need legislators and unions to apply pressure, for a start. It is the equivalent of a slave that tried to escape the plantation, upon being recaptured, having their hamstrings or Achilles’ tendons cut in full view of other slaves to ensure their obedience. This is the type of platform economy we are allowing these Bermuda and Cayman Island-registered Hedge Fund controlled Platform Giants to build here in the Republic of Ireland and across Europe if we fail to regulate them as soon as possible. The other form of coercive control, is reminding these platform workers how replaceable they are, in the past couple of weeks, delivery drones have been trialled in Dublin 15. Our feedback from the Irish public is that there is not consent nor appetite for a dystopian urban landscape where the same inanimate forms that are threatening and taking lives in the Gaza Strip be welcomed to our streets to replace the only type of work that is available to thousands of our society’s members. From our experience and feedback, the Irish Public support dignity and proper pay for all kinds of work here and value the human interactions that are essential to social cohesion and our collective emotional and mental well-being. We call on Oireachtas members to support the right of any member of the Irish public to disable and safely remove any drone that replaces anybody’s job, infringes in any way on our livelihood or peace of mind, from our skies just as farmers are entitled to do. No consent has ever been given for such technology to be allowed to be given free reign in any part of our Republic and such automation must be rejected, resisted and placed in the recycle bin. We have a number of capital infrastructure projects that could benefit from the transitioning of those currently under the yoke of abusive platform work into the training and employment associated with achieving our national housing and other such objectives. We need to be offering training courses and contracts to those who want to be part of our national revitalisation, I know elected members of both Fine Gael and Sinn Féin who agree strongly with this, it only makes sense. Let’s please get something done. After our March 2021 meeting with the current Taoiseach, one of the delivery riders who personally spoke with Leo was very soon afterwards physically attacked, and threatened to such an extent that he was forced to disavow his activism and flee Dublin in fear of his life. Leo has yet to respond to this, but no matter what our political views are, it is unacceptable that someone can meet the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to discuss how payments were in free fall and within days be beaten up and mortally threatened. This cannot be permitted and must be pro-actively punished. It is known that Uber actively recruit from CIA and other intelligence community veterans and Deliveroo’s shareholders have explicitly called for financial inducements to be paid to parties and politicians that do their bidding. In this regard, Platform Work, in its current form represents a threat to our democratic institutions as well as a quantum leap backwards in terms of the labour conditions of millions of workers in Europe. The current behaviour of Uber and Deliveroo represents an attempted Coup D’état in the EU and the member states, an assault on all citizens and workers. Again, this is, unfortunately, no exaggeration. Platform companies that behave as described above must be treated like the anti-democratic slavers they are. They must be treated like political pariahs and the only engagement between them and ourselves should be when workers, legislators and unions demand their regulation, accountability and replacement by alternatives that better suit both workers and restaurants alike. 4 We call on Irish and European legislators and unions to support all efforts to claw-back and fight for a Platform Work Directive that places the well-being of workers before the private interests of Platform Giants and their hedge-fund backers in Brussels next Monday, the 11th of March. Macron has made himself vulnerable by his continued support for these companies despite what was uncovered by the Uber Files, as have the other members of the German coalition by hiding behind the failing FDP, as have the Estonian government exposed themselves as being extremely compromised by their position vis-à-vis the EU Platform Work Directive, constituting a “blocking minority”. This must all be thoroughly investigated, and it will be. A failure to reach an agreement on the directive next Monday will result in ethics investigations at European and national level as it becomes increasingly obvious to more and more voters across Europe that Uber and Deliveroo have been every bit as manipulative as Qatar was found out to have been just before the last World Cup. Senior heads may well roll and criminal investigations into the illegal lobbying practices of Uber and Deliveroo will have to be conducted by Europol and national police services if indeed we allow private interests keep millions of our workers in such dystopian precarity instead of proper regulation of Platforms, which is so obviously in the public interest. It is guaranteed to become a much hotter political topic between now and the European elections as parties from both left and right are becoming increasingly vexed and outspoken about the negative effect we are allowing these faceless companies to have on our societies. They are explicitly attempting to replace the traditional and well-establish norms associated by the relationship between worker and employer or business owner. Until now there has always been some sort of accountability, something they want to destroy forever as more and more sections of our society are actively enslaved by AI and algorithms as we have seen here with delivery riders. ELSU recommends that Irish parties, politicians and candidates of all political persuasions ensure that they are recorded as being on the right side of history, without delay. The silver-lining, from the Irish perspective, is that our current Government has finally got off the fence and supported the draft EU Directive, this is welcome and we ask all Oireachtas members to make sure that regardless of the outcome of next Monday’s last ditch attempt to reach an agreement on the EU Directive, that there will be absolutely zero delay in legislating nationally on the basis of that provisional agreement. We ask for your support for a national €5 minimum payment per delivery. We thank SIPTU, Social Justice Ireland and Eurofound for their submissions and thank the Oireachtas members who have engaged with riders through us since 2020. We strongly encourage everyone to get around a table soon to discuss what the challenges are and how do we overcome them together. The essence of our Irish Republic and European Union is at stake and minimising the threat currently being posed must become yesterday’s game. Oireachtas members, unions, workers and others who want to request any further information are welcome to get in contact via email on [email protected] Here is a link to the agreed statement from the hundreds of platform workers representatives who met in the European Parliament on the 21 st and 22nd of February, we encourage others to email [email protected] so they can add their organisations’ names to those in support and adopt this as our common position ahead of future negotiations: https://braveneweurope.com/the-brussels-appeal-proposal-from-the-forum-on-alternatives-to- uberisation-21-22-february-2024 Fiachra Ó Luain 5 Meeting re Platform Directive, Platform Workers and Employment Status. Friday 23 rd of June, 2:30. Room 12a Kildare St. Attendees: Matt Lynch, Special Advisor to An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar Dermot Mulligan, Assistant Secretary, Dept. Enterprise, Trade and Employment Gerald Harty, Assistant Principal, Dept. Enterprise, Trade and Employment Fiachra O Luain, English Language Student Union (ELSU) , Platform Worker advocate James Farrar, App Drivers &amp; Couriers Union (ADCU) U.K. , Platform Worker advocate Meeting Note: Mr Lynch opened the meeting by welcoming attendees and referring to the previous meeting held with , then Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar T.D. and Deliveroo workers, in March 2021. Mr O’Luain spoke to the need to support platform workers and suggested that established trade unions should advocate for these workers, suggesting that expert representation i s needed in what is a very complex area. Mr O’Luain referenced the declin in g payments per trip delivery riders are receiving in comparison with recent years and suggested that platform apps can offer reduced fees to workers depending on the level of rider availability. Mr O’Luain spoke to the health and safety implications of substandard accommodations and the dangers associated with fires caused by electric batteries. Mr O’Luain also referred to the unfortunate deaths of delivery riders and the need for Government to do all it can to support fair working conditions while acknowledging the contribution that the delivery workers made during the pandemic , their continuing contribution to the economy, and to the rising costs of living . Mr O’Luain then made several proposals whereby conditions for delivery platform workers could be improved. These are listed below. Follow the example set by Spain, by increasing the maximum working hours on a student visa (Stamp 2) to be increased from 20 to 30 hours per week. Allow Stamp 2 vias holders to own their own platform account (e.g., Deliveroo accounts). Currently only Stamp 4 visa holders can own an account. Suggestion that individuals earn passive income by renting these accounts to Stamp 2 visa holders. Follow positive models from elsewhere, such as, New York where a minimum payment per trip / minimum wage has been introduced. Introduce a baseline delivery fee of €6. This would allow riders to earn a good hourly wage. (Suggested 3 trips per hour as average) Include riders in tax refund scheme for bicycle/ebike purchases. If delivery accounts are closed , account owners should be entitled to redundancy or a form of compensation in acknowledgement of their loss of livelihood and contribution to the platform company. Role for the WRC in informing riders (account holders and those rent these accounts from) of their rights and entitlements. That delivery workers should have locations and facilities to congregate, take shelter, have use of a bathroom and shower. Suggested that Government should play a role in the provision of such facilities, potentially in line with the remote workers Hub Network. Gender issue here which discourages participation in these roles , also prevalent in the taxi industry. Stamp 2 delivery workers should be provided with access to tax schemes or costs of living measures . ELE courses and associated visa should be increased from 8 to 12 months , so that holiday times align with the times that all students can work 40 hours legally. A register of o fficial agents who work on behalf of ELE sector should be established , and escrow accounts made use of . Ensure that each course place offered includes access to appropriate student accommodation. Allow Stamp 2 visa holders, who are not covered by platform companies’ policies, access to the Public L iability I nsurance S cheme. Mr Lynch closed the meeting by thanking the attendees, acknowledging that several Government Departments, such as Dept. of Education and Dept. of Justice, would have a role to play, and advising that he would follow up on the proposals made. Date Extension number 6th of March 2024 +31 88 368 03 68 Our reference Email address 24 023 PB/ES/ae [email protected] Subject Annex Platform worker across Europe urgently call upon the Governments - of Estonia, France, Greece and Germany to support the political agreement on the Platform Work Directive Dear Prime Minister Kallas, Prime Minister Attal, and Prime Minister Mitsotakis, Dear Minister Heil, Minister Riisalo, and Minister Michailidou, At this moment, a common set of EU norms to end legal uncertainty of platform workers and to clarify the boundaries of the use of digital technologies in our labour markets is lacking. Over the past years, national Courts have tried to fill the gap, but showed to be insufficient. EU-legislation to protect platform workers is badly needed. Platform workers are essential in our EU economy. Not only in transporting people, delivering meals, but also as internet moderators, data annotators, clickworkers, cleaners, temporary agency workers and beyond. However, all too often those essential service providers are exploited by the business model of false self-employment of platform companies. This abusive business model must be stopped. The political agreement at the last trilogue aims at establishing the correct employment status of platform workers: either as employees or as genuinely self-employed persons. And that is crucial to stop millions of workers being wrongly classified as false self-employed, which allows platform companies to avoid paying the minimum wage, holiday or sick pay, and social security contributions. Platform workers across Europe urgently call upon you to support the political agreement. We cannot accept a business model that platform companies use to evade social security contributions and which is undermining our social welfare systems. The platform economy transcends food delivery and passenger transport; it encompasses all forms of work, whether blue-collar or white-collar. Hertogswetering 159 P.O. Box 9208 T +31 88 368 03 68 3543 AS Utrecht 3506 GE Utrecht I www.fnv.nl Date Reference Page 6th of March 2024 24 023 PB/ES/ae 2 of 2 The political agreement, in addition, is establishing transparency in the use of algorithmic management systems. Today, all too often algorithmic management systems are used by platform companies to treat workers as a commodity. But labour is not a commodity. It is therefore urgently needed to protect platform workers against the violation of their right to privacy, the erosion of protections against workplace hazards, and the imposition of opaque, algorithmic decision-making that undermines their income and future prospects, leading to legal, social, and administrative insecurity. Our European social economic model has to be just and sustainable. It cannot be built upon giving companies that trample workers' rights free rein. We call upon you to avoid leaving millions of hardworking people open to exploitation. It is time to deliver for platform workers. We call upon you to support the political agreement between the Belgian Presidency of the Council and the negotiators of the European Parliament, on March 11th at the EPSCO Council! With the highest esteem, Petra Bolster – Damen FNV International Secretary Also on behalf of: DGB, Germany EAKL, Estonia GSEE, Greece CGT, France CGT Transports, France TPN, France ABVV-FGTB, Belgium ACV-CSC, Belgium ČMKOS, Czech Republic ELSU, Ireland CGIL, Italy ZSSS, Slovenia FNV Riders United, the Netherlands Hertogswetering 159 P.O. Box 9208 T +31 88 368 03 68 3543 AS Utrecht 3506 GE Utrecht I www.fnv.nl