BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The European Parliament wants to improve working conditions for employees of online platforms such as Bolt, Uber, Gorillas and other delivery services. In such employment, one is a slave to the algorithm, said the Socialist MEP Elisabetta Gualmini, on Thursday in a meeting of the EU Parliament in Brussels. The background is a proposal by the EU Commission, according to which online platform employees should be better protected in the future. The EU states and the Parliament still have to agree on a compromise.

According to the proposal, millions of platform workers could be classified as employees - and not as freelancers, as is currently the case. This would entitle them to basic employee rights such as pension, health and unemployment insurance, said SPD MEP Gaby Bischoff. Left-wing MEP Özlem Alev Demirel welcomed the plan. It would also give employees the right to organize themselves into unions and negotiate collective bargaining agreements, she said.

The proposal would also regulate how digital labor platforms should use algorithms and artificial intelligence to monitor and evaluate workers.

FDP MEP Svenja Hahn is skeptical of the proposal. In her view, it would eliminate solo self-employment far beyond delivery or driving services. "In fact, all people who offer their services via digital work platforms would be forced into an employment relationship," Hahn said. Gualmini vehemently disagreed with this view on Thursday.

The chairwoman of the German Federation of Trade Unions, Yasmin Fahimi stressed that "bogus self-employment and exploitation in this shadow labor market" must be effectively curbed.

Negotiations on the Commission's proposal between the EU states had already proved difficult. For the time being, these had failed, among other things, because the German government could not agree on a position./oli/DP/mis