Deliveroo workers are false self-employed and this has been confirmed by the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid. Last Thursday the Court confirmed the sentence imposed on Deliveroo for having 532 delivery men fake freelancers. The Treasury requires Deliveroo more than 1.2 million euros in the matter of social contributions.
The macrocause started thanks to the ex officio action of the Treasury of the Social Security after an act of the Labor Inspection that alerted on the situation of the messengers. The court confirms the criterion of a judgment of a court of first instance when dismissing an appeal that had been filed by the platform.
“The resolution has been issued by the twenty magistrates that make up the Social Chamber of the Madrid Supreme Court. It is not usual and this may indicate your willingness to unify the criteria, there has been no particular vote. In addition, the case has been promoted by the General Treasury of the Social Security with evidence from the Labor Inspection, which gives much more weight to these arguments than not a demand from an individual dealer”, He comments Esther Comas, lawyer for the Ronda de Madrid Collective, that has been part of the trial on behalf of affected workers
The justice ruled in July in favor of Social Security and declared that the distributors of Deliveroo were bogus freelancers be subject to an employment relationship with the company. In addition, the justice considers that the platform was the one who organized the working hours of these, which left them without the freedom of the self-employed.
This ruling allows them to register for the General Social Security Scheme, request the return of the fees as self-employed and be governed by the corresponding collective agreement.
The UGT union has highlighted the importance of this ruling, considering it “the first of a Superior Court of Justice on an ex officio procedure, initiated by the liquidation acts of the Labor Inspection against the relationship of false self-employed workers that Delivero (Roofoods) maintained and still maintains with its distributors“Reports the same newspaper.
It is the highest sentence against a food delivery platform at home and thus closes the greatest struggle to determine whether the distributors of the home delivery platforms are salaried or self-employed.