EU: the EU Commission takes a (timid) first step towards the recognition of the right to collective bargaining for self-employed workers

Thus the trap in which the self-employed find themselves ensnared. In order to redistribute the balance of power vis-à-vis contractor clients, the self-employed have to organise and negotiate tariffs collectively. However, some legislations understand this practice by the self-employed to amount to cartel arrangements in terms of competition law. To break the deadlock, on 30 June the European Commission announced the launch of ‘a process to ensure that EU competition rules do not stand in the way of collective bargaining’ for these self-employed workers. At this stage, it is just one issue that is being included in a much wider public consultation on the Digital Services Act Package, and according to criticism by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), represents a move that postpones the prospect of a serious initiative for several more years.