The Amsterdam District Court in the Netherlands has ruled that Deliveroo meal deliverers are employees under the terms of the collective agreement for professional freight transport and must therefore be paid as employees – the outcome of a case launched by the FNV union in 2018.
It concerns a group of 12 workers employed by Deliveroo before 2018, who demanded a supplementary wage payment based on the collective agreement for professional freight transport.
“Deliveroo continues to claim that the delivery drivers are not covered by the collective agreement, despite previous rulings by the court and the court of appeal,” said Anja Dijkman of FNV Platformwerk.
The FNV has been taking action for years to force companies such as Deliveroo, Uber and Temper to respect their obligations to workers. “They say that their employees are self-employed, but in practice that turns out not to be true,” said Dijkman. “The employees are controlled and have very little say over rates and conditions. As a result, they have to pay for their own insurance, days off and pensions. But society is also missing out on money because companies are not paying premiums for employee and national insurance schemes.”