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Brussels (AFP) – Deliveroo riders in Belgium can’t be requalified as staff with contracts heaping social safety and tax obligations on the corporate, a Belgian court dominated on Wednesday.
The takeaway platform instantly hailed the consequence as “a victory”, though the judgment associated to a small minority of riders working as unbiased contractors.
“The labour relationship linking Deliveroo to the 115 riders… cannot be requalified as an employment contract,” the court stated.
“It’s a victory from a legal standpoint for Deliveroo. It’s also one for the riders who made the conscious choice to work as independent contractors with the flexibility they desire,” a spokesman for Deliveroo’s Belgian subsidiary, Rodolphe Van Nuffel, instructed AFP.
CSC, a union masking round 30 of the riders, stated it was “surprising” the court didn’t discover there was a authorized employer-employee relationship.
“This ruling doesn’t favour anyone, and certainly not the riders who wanted to benefit from the rights of other workers, such as social security or workers’ accident insurance with real coverage,” a union consultant, Martin Willems, instructed AFP.
He stated solely 15 p.c of Deliveroo riders in Belgium work beneath unbiased contractor status, whereas the remainder are beneath a “collaborative economy” class for many who earn money from sharing actions proposed by platforms.
The latter class, launched in 2016, permits folks to have interaction in the gig economic system by offering occasional small providers to high up their different revenues, however presents no social safety protection.
The court needed to weigh two statuses, these of salaried worker or unbiased contractor, however these classes had been “not applicable” to providers supplied by on-line platforms, Willems stated.
He stated it was “urgent” that the Belgian authorities clear up that inconsistency.
© 2021 AFP