Social Europe

  • EU Forward Project
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

Spain’s platform workers win algorithm transparency

Ane Aranguiz 18th March 2021

Legal amendments will not only recognise ‘riders’ as employees but require algorithm transparency from platforms generally.

algorithm transparency
Ane Aranguiz

After arduous negotiations, the Spanish government and the social partners reached an agreement on the labour rights of people working for digital platforms on March 9th.

The agreement aims to establish the employment status of those engaged in the delivery or distribution of any consumer product or merchandise via a digital platform. It does so on two basic premises: a presumption of employment and algorithm transparency.

The former comes as no surprise, as it simply implements what has already been recognised by several national courts and the Spanish Supreme Court itself: ‘riders’ ought to be considered workers. This presumption of employment for platform-mediated delivery workers will be implemented through amendments to the current Workers’ Statute incorporating an additional provision (23), recognising ‘riders’ as workers and thereby entitling them to full workers’ rights—including access to the social protection they currently lack.

Ground-breaking

Whereas recognition of employment status for ‘riders’ was a given after last September’s Supreme Court ruling, the second premise—algorithm transparency—is ground-breaking. This requires a modification of article 64 of the Workers’ Statute, on the right of workers to information, making it mandatory for platforms to inform workers’ legal representatives about the mathematical or algorithmic formula determining their working conditions.

Accordingly, digital platforms will have to make available to trade unions an algorithm, or any artificial intelligence of sorts, which may have an impact on such conditions—including individuals’ access to, and maintenance of, employment and their profiling. This right to information is granted to everyone working through a platform—not only ‘riders’—and thus the transparency requirement applies to all digital platforms equally.

The minister for employment and the social economy, Yolanda Díaz—now third vice-president of the government after the departure of the Podemos leader, Pablo Iglesias, while retaining her portfolio—stressed that this transparency would enable the neutralisation of algorithmic punishments, penalties for performance and bias.

The amendments will be presented in a royal decree and will give the platforms three months to regularise their workers—not to recognise the employment relationship but rather providing ‘time for adaptation and deployment of the operating systems, also in access to information algorithms, due to this change in the regulation’, as the minister put it.

Shortcomings

For all its strengths, the envisaged ‘rider’ law however comes with shortcomings. For one, the presumption of employment, derived from the Supreme Court ruling, applies only to riders—a small fraction of platform workers. Many performing on-demand services thus remain excluded from the social protections attached to the status of worker.

In addition, platform companies are reluctant to implement these changes and have for weeks been looking into alternatives to avoid having their own fleet of riders. In this vein, while the amendments will put an end to the practice of commercial contracts between the rider and the platform, they still allow the use of subcontracting companies and temporary contracts in the event of demand ‘peaks’. This is, for example, how Just Eat currently operates, though this practice forbids the digital platform from organising and managing the work of the riders.

Without real willingness from the platforms’ side to stop precariousness, court battles will continue—whether so other platform workers eventually gain the status of worker or to tackle the precarity linked to the atypical contracts which are being considered as an alternative.

Win for tripartism

But it has been a win for tripartism and indeed the eighth social-dialogue agreement in Spain in the last 15 months. Backed by the European Trade Union Confederation, which urges the European Union to follow in the country’s footsteps, the two main Spanish trade union confederations, the UGT and CCOO, consider these changes the first step in protecting labour rights in the informal economy. The employers’ association (CEOE)—after some internal disputes—and that for small and medium enterprises (CEPYME) also agreed to the amendments.

CEOE’s support for the agreement has been poorly received by the Association of On-Demand Service Platforms, which brings together platforms such as Deliveroo, Stuart, Glovo and Uber Eats. The association is strongly opposed to the legislative initiative and considers it an attack on basic principles of freedom of enterprise and intellectual property.

Other national courts (as in the UK and the Netherlands) have recently joined the plea to give riders the status of workers but Spain’s legislation is pioneering in giving trade unions access to the platforms’ algorithms. It has, in fact, been submitted to the European Commission as part of one of the structural reforms envisaged in the context of the Recovery and Resilience Plan.

Amid the first-stage social partners’ consultation on improving the working conditions of platform work, for a legislative proposal by the commission expected later this year, the forthcoming ‘rider’ law will put Spain in the regulatory spotlight. The legislative initiative could follow that lead and, based on the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, include a similar transparency clause opening up algorithms to trade unions with the goal of fighting discrimination (article 21), live up to the right of information for workers (article 27) and improve working conditions (article 31) in platform work.

Pics
Ane Aranguiz

Ane Aranguiz is a post-doctoral researcher at Tilburg Law School and at the Faculty of Law of the University of Antwerp. She is a lecturer in European labour law at TLS and is currently working on two Horizon 2020 projects: WorkingYP and EuSocialCit.

Harvard University Press Advertisement

Social Europe Ad - Promoting European social policies

We need your help.

Support Social Europe for less than €5 per month and help keep our content freely accessible to everyone. Your support empowers independent publishing and drives the conversations that matter. Thank you very much!

Social Europe Membership

Click here to become a member

Most Recent Articles

09d21a9 The Future of Social Democracy: How the German SPD can Win AgainHenning Meyer
u42198346 How Trump’s Tariff Regime Fuels Global OligarchyGabriel Zucman
u421983462 041df6feef0a 3 Universities Under Siege: A Global Reckoning for Higher EducationManuel Muñiz
u4219836ab582 af42 4743 a271 a4f423d1926d 0 How Trade Unions Can Champion Solidarity in Europe’s Migration DebateNeva Löw
u421983467298feb62884 0 The Weak Strongman: How Trump’s Presidency Emboldens America’s EnemiesTimothy Snyder

Most Popular Articles

u4219834647f 0894ae7ca865 3 Europe’s Businesses Face a Quiet Takeover as US Investors CapitaliseTej Gonza and Timothée Duverger
u4219834674930082ba55 0 Portugal’s Political Earthquake: Centrist Grip Crumbles, Right AscendsEmanuel Ferreira
u421983467e58be8 81f2 4326 80f2 d452cfe9031e 1 “The Universities Are the Enemy”: Why Europe Must Act NowBartosz Rydliński
u42198346761805ea24 2 Trump’s ‘Golden Era’ Fades as European Allies Face Harsh New RealityFerenc Németh and Peter Kreko
startupsgovernment e1744799195663 Governments Are Not StartupsMariana Mazzucato
u421986cbef 2549 4e0c b6c4 b5bb01362b52 0 American SuicideJoschka Fischer
u42198346769d6584 1580 41fe 8c7d 3b9398aa5ec5 1 Why Trump Keeps Winning: The Truth No One AdmitsBo Rothstein
u421983467 a350a084 b098 4970 9834 739dc11b73a5 1 America Is About to Become the Next BrexitJ Bradford DeLong
u4219834676ba1b3a2 b4e1 4c79 960b 6770c60533fa 1 The End of the ‘West’ and Europe’s FutureGuillaume Duval
u421983462e c2ec 4dd2 90a4 b9cfb6856465 1 The Transatlantic Alliance Is Dying—What Comes Next for Europe?Frank Hoffer

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Spring issue of The Progressive Post is out!


Since President Trump’s inauguration, the US – hitherto the cornerstone of Western security – is destabilising the world order it helped to build. The US security umbrella is apparently closing on Europe, Ukraine finds itself less and less protected, and the traditional defender of free trade is now shutting the door to foreign goods, sending stock markets on a rollercoaster. How will the European Union respond to this dramatic landscape change? .


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss European defence strategies, assess how the US president's recent announcements will impact international trade and explore the risks  and opportunities that algorithms pose for workers.


READ THE MAGAZINE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

DOWNLOAD HERE

S&D Group in the European Parliament advertisement

Cohesion Policy

S&D Position Paper on Cohesion Policy post-2027: a resilient future for European territorial equity”,

Cohesion Policy aims to promote harmonious development and reduce economic, social and territorial disparities between the regions of the Union, and the backwardness of the least favoured regions with a particular focus on rural areas, areas affected by industrial transition and regions suffering from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps, such as outermost regions, regions with very low population density, islands, cross-border and mountain regions.

READ THE FULL POSITION PAPER HERE

ETUI advertisement

HESA Magazine Cover

What kind of impact is artificial intelligence (AI) having, or likely to have, on the way we work and the conditions we work under? Discover the latest issue of HesaMag, the ETUI’s health and safety magazine, which considers this question from many angles.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
How are minimum wage levels changing in Europe?

In a new Eurofound Talks podcast episode, host Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound expert Carlos Vacas Soriano about recent changes to minimum wages in Europe and their implications.

Listeners can delve into the intricacies of Europe's minimum wage dynamics and the driving factors behind these shifts. The conversation also highlights the broader effects of minimum wage changes on income inequality and gender equality.

Listen to the episode for free. Also make sure to subscribe to Eurofound Talks so you don’t miss an episode!

LISTEN NOW

Social Europe

Our Mission

Team

Article Submission

Advertisements

Membership

Social Europe Archives

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Miscellaneous

RSS Feed

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641