Last month, the Supreme Court made an important ruling in the field of labour law. The delivery drivers of the platform Deliveroo were working in the Netherlands on the basis of an employment contract within the meaning of Section 7:610 of the Dutch Civil Code. This means that those deliverymen are entitled to all the protection that the law attaches to the existence of such a contract, including protection against dismissal, continued payment of wages in case of illness, entitlement to holiday pay and holidays.
The Supreme Court upheld a ruling made by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal in the case in early 2021. According to the Supreme Court, the court correctly ruled that in the case of delivery drivers, the three requirements of the law for the existence of an employment contract were met. Work must be performed by the employee, wages must be paid by the employer and the employee must have worked under the employer’s authority. Regarding the labour factor, the Supreme Court clarified that the fact that the delivery men had the freedom to log in to the app (and make deliveries) or not, and also that the deliverymen could be substituted, did not prevent the assumption of an employment contract.
With regard to the authority criterion, it has been clarified that the court may also look at whether the work being done is “organisationally embedded” in the organisation and therefore part of the normal business work of the employer’s company. However, that is only one of the circumstances to be considered. It is necessary to look holistically at all the circumstances of the case. Clearly, Deliveroo is not the only company that will have to ‘deal’ with these new circumstances.