March 2023 - The Netherlands - Deliveroo / FNV (Supreme Court)
Ruling on March 24, 2023
Authority: Supreme Court of the Netherlands
Subject: This case concerns the question of whether Deliveroo's meal delivery staff were employed in the Netherlands on the basis of an employment contract.
Legal question: what is the real nature of the relationship between delivery workers and the company?
Considerations: Delivery drivers originally worked on a fixed-term contract basis. As of February 2018, Deliveroo has decided not to renew these employment contracts. Since July 1, 2018, delivery drivers have only worked on the basis of an assignment agreement. Deliveroo pays riders for the work they have performed. The regular course of events described by Deliveroo (an automatic bi-weekly payment by Deliveroo to the delivery person) is more similar to the course of events in an employment contract, in which the employer must pay the wages himself, than in a contract for services, in which the contractor invoices. The individual deliverers do not have an influence on the wage level. Nor has it been found that delivery drivers have influenced wages in any other way. More than two-thirds of Deliveroo's deliverers do not consider themselves entrepreneurs. Deliveroo always unilaterally changes the content of the contracts and how the work is organized. the Court of Appeal has failed to recognize that the freedom of delivery drivers to register if and when they wish and to refuse assignments is incompatible with an employment contract, and that the same applies to the freedom of delivery drivers to have it replaced. The performance of normal delivery work can indicate a relationship of authority.
Ruling: The contents of the agreements comply with the legal description of the employment contract.
