The 5 requirements for a delivery driver to become a contract employee in Europe

The European Commission, one of the seven institutions of the European Union (EU), launched last December the draft of a project to regulate the hiring of delivery men and drivers on digital platforms. With this, it calculates that up to 4.1 million freelancers could be reclassified as workers of companies such as Uber, Glovo and Deliveroo.

The sheet seeks to guarantee that people who work through digital platforms are recognized in the employment situation that corresponds to their real work modality. It also provides a list of screening criteria to determine if the organization is a full-fledged driver employer.

Platforms that meet two of the five pre-established criteria in the written proposal will have their workers automatically reclassified from self-employed to employees. Associations will have the right to challenge or “refute” this classification, but will have to show that there is no employment relationship.

Once the rights have been won, the reclassified distributors would be subject to receiving a minimum wage, collective bargaining, regulation of the working day and health protection, as well as the right to enjoy paid vacations or better access to protection in case of work accident. This, without counting unemployment and sickness benefits, and contributory retirement pensions.

The Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Improvement of Working Conditions on Work Platforms foresees that some 15 companies from the community bloc of 27 countries would be involved in the measure, that it must pass the legislative process in the European Parliament and that the authorities do not see as real before 2025.

“Platform companies will work hard and spend a lot to try to cheat the tests imposed on them by the EU and maintain their business model based on exploitation,” predicted Ludovic Voet, confederal secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). .

EU: rights for couriers

The determination of the existence of an employment relationship will be guided mainly by the facts related to the actual execution of the work, and the use of algorithms in the organization of the platform will be taken into account, regardless of how the relationship is classified in any contractual arrangement that has been agreed between the parties involved.

“When the existence of an employment relationship is established based on the facts, the party that assumes the employer’s obligations must be clearly identified in accordance with national legal systems,” the document states.

In this sense, for the EU, a real working relationship between the platform and the delivery person will be established if at least two of the following requirements are met:

1. Determine or effectively set maximum limits for the level of remuneration.
2. Require the person who performs the work on the platform to respect specific binding rules regarding appearance, conduct towards the recipient of the service or execution of the work.
3. Supervise the execution of the work or verify the quality of the results of the work including by electronic means.
4. Effectively restrict the freedom, including through sanctions, to organize one’s work, in particular the discretion to choose working hours or periods of absence, accept or refuse tasks, or use subcontractors or substitutes.
5. Effectively restrict the ability to build a customer base, or perform work for any third party.

Likewise, the member states will adopt support measures to guarantee the effective application of the legal presumption, and the impact on start-ups will be taken into account, while avoiding capturing the true self-employed and supporting the sustainable growth of labor platforms digital. In particular, they must:

• Ensure that information on the application of the legal presumption is made publicly available in a clear, complete and easily accessible manner.
• Develop guidance for digital job platforms, people performing the job platform and social partners to understand and implement the legal presumption including on procedures to refute it pursuant to Article 5.
• Develop guidance for law enforcement authorities to proactively target and pursue non-compliant digital labor platforms.
• Strengthen field checks and inspections carried out by labor inspectorates or bodies responsible for labor law enforcement, while ensuring that such checks and inspections are proportionate and non-discriminatory.