A proposal written by the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, aims to give traditional employment rights to gig workers across the EU.

What that could mean, under the proposal announced today, is that millions of contract workers, some of them working for companies such as Uber Technologies Inc., could by law have to receive at least the minimum wage, vacation pay, sick pay and many other traditional employment rights.

“The proposed directive seeks to ensure that people working through digital labor platforms are granted the legal employment status that corresponds to their actual work arrangements,” the commission wrote in a press release. “It provides a list of control criteria to determine whether the platform is an ‘employer.’ If the platform meets at least two of those criteria, it is legally presumed to be an employer.”

The commission said that throughout the EU, there are currently about 28 million gig workers, and it said some 5.5 million of those workers were wrongly classified as self-employed. Still, these people might be asked by the company not to work for other similar companies or adhere to a dress code, which sounds like they are more like an employee of the company.

There has been a lot of controversy as to what rights a gig worker should have. In February this year, there was a landmark ruling in the U.K. that said Uber drivers should be classified as workers. That came after 25 drivers argued in court that the company hired them as independent contractors, but they said that was a misrepresentation of what they actually did, and they deserved full worker rights.

Just the other day, the food delivery company Door Dash turned heel and announced that it was starting to classify some of its workers as employees. In the past, Door Dash had fought against giving its drivers employment rights. It’s likely this kind of thing will catch on.

“With more and more jobs created by digital labor platforms, we need to ensure decent working conditions for all those deriving their income from such work,” said the Valdis Dombrovskis, executive vice president for the European Commission for An Economy that Works for People. “Our proposal for a directive will help false self-employed working for platforms to correctly determine their employment status and enjoy all the social rights that come with that.”

The proposal will have to go through various steps before it’s written into law, and it’s almost certain that Uber and similar companies will do their best to make sure that doesn’t happen. Talking to the New York Times, Uber said the law would end up “putting thousands of jobs at risk, crippling small businesses in the wake of the pandemic and damaging vital services that consumers across Europe rely on.”

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