Date
10 August 2021

Tag

Active

Country
France France
Geographical scope
National
Type
  • Type

    Provision of insurance and social protection

    Legal
  • Type

    Working conditions

    Legal
View Initiative

Description

The Bill on Transport Mobility (‘Loi LOM’) aims to improve social rights and working conditions for platform workers, to promote workers’ skills and qualifications through lifelong learning and to develop the social responsibility of platforms. The law includes provisions that concern all platform workers (common provisions) and provisions which are applicable only to independent drivers and delivery workers (specific provisions).

Common Provisions

  • Personal data: all platform workers have the right to access all data concerning their own activities within the platform. Workers are entitled to receive the data in a structured format and have the right to share it. This provision seeks to enable the mobility of workers across platforms with the preservation of their "e-reputation" (Article L7342-7 of the Labour Code).
  • Vocational training: all platform workers who earn more than 13% of the Social Security Annual Threshold (which represents €5,347.68 in 2021) have the right to access the personal training account scheme (CPF) to which the platform contributes (Article L. L7242-3 of the Labour Code). To have expenses reimbursed by the platform, the self-employed worker must submit a request for reimbursement and provide the platform with a proof of the expenses he or she has incurred, as well as the total earnings. The application for reimbursement can be submitted free of charge and by electronic means. Any platform covered by the law (those covered by Article L. 7342-1 of the Labour Code) is obliged to inform self-employed workers who use its services of the possibility of submitting a claim for reimbursement.
  • Collective representation: a right to collective representation is envisaged for the future. The law provides that the government is authorised to take any measure by ordinance to determine the terms and conditions of representation of self-employed workers using platforms for their activity. This ordinance was adopted on 21 April 2021. The text of the ordinance establishes a form of collective representation for platform workers, but only for those defined in Article L. 7341-1 of the Labour Code, that is, car drivers and delivery workers ‘using a two- or three-wheeled vehicle, motorised or otherwise’. This text provides for organising an election in 2022 for representatives of platform workers.

Sectoral Provisions To achieve the aim of Loi LOM, transport platforms (such as those mediating the delivery of food or rides) can voluntarily establish a corporate social responsibility charter. The charter should have the following contents:

  • Ensure freedom of activity and prohibit any exclusivity clause
  • Prohibit the unilateral breaking of contract without compensation
  • Guarantee a decent income for each task performed
  • Provide opportunities for career advancement and training programmes
  • Improve working conditions and ensure platforms comply with their obligations on transparency

Once established and approved by the French administration, the charter has a binding legal character and is annexed to the commercial contract of the platform worker.

Platforms must also ensure transparent working conditions. They must provide workers with precise information on the distance and minimum price of the service. They must also inform workers of the distance covered by the service and the guaranteed minimum price they will receive net of the commission fee.

Platforms must provide such information by any means and must ensure that such information is presented fairly and is legible, clear, unambiguous and easily accessible by the worker.

Workers may refuse a proposal for a transport service without being subject to any penalty. In particular, the platform may not terminate the contractual relationship with a worker on the grounds of refusal of one or more proposals.

The platform shall be obliged to publish on its website, in a fair, clear and transparent manner, indicators relating to the duration of activity (per week or month) and income from activity of different group of workers connected with the platform during the previous calendar year. The list of indicators has been published through a decree issued in April 2021 and will be included for the first time on platform websites in March 2022.

Workers can choose their working hours and periods of inactivity and can log off from the platform during their working hours. Platforms cannot terminate the contract when a worker exercises this right.


Additional metadata

Keywords
autonomy and control, privacy and data protection, income, collective bargaining
Actors
Government
Sector
Transportation and storage

Citation

Eurofound (2021), Revision of the legal framework for platform workers (Initiative), Record number 3035, Platform Economy Database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/platformeconomydb/revision-of-the-legal-framework-for-platform-workers-103100.