Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

Spain à l’avant-garde on social protection for platform work?

Ane Aranguiz 4th September 2019

Deliveroo ‘riders’ are workers and not self-employed, according to Spanish courts.

platform work
Ane Aranguiz

While many were enjoying the summer break, Spanish courts were busily setting an example for the social protection of platform workers. Three recent judgments confirmed that Deliveroo ‘riders’ have in fact an employment relationship with the platform and should be considered as workers, not self-employed.

Sacha Garben has stressed that the key social problem facing platform workers is their legal status. The mixed features of platform work mean it often does not fit within the framework of an employment relationship as conventionally understood. Online platforms tend to exploit the blurry lines of labour law for the profit of the companies behind them and at the cost of minimum social standards, such as the minimum wage, paid annual leave and maternity and social-security rights.

National responses across the European Union are divided, with some member states deciding in favour of the existence of an employment relationship while others support the idea of platform workers as independent contractors. Discrepancies exist also within member states, where different domestic courts have reached different outcomes (as in France, the UK and Spain). Inconsistencies between courts undoubtedly have a detrimental effect on individuals working with platforms, who lack legal certainty with regard to their employment status and derivative rights.

New impetus

Adding new impetus to the discussion, however three Spanish courts have recently decided in favour of the existence of an employment relationship.

Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content.


We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Thank you!

Please check your inbox and click on the link in the confirmation email to complete your newsletter subscription.

.

The first judgment, delivered in June by the Social Court of Barcelona, represents the first collective lawsuit against an online platform in Spain. The judge declared the ten Deliveroo ‘riders’ to be bogus self-employed and concluded, after analysing a significant amount of data, that ‘riders’ lacked autonomy and were therefore to be considered ‘workers’.

In this case, the judge dismantled the alleged autonomy of the ‘riders’ by, on the one hand, claiming that Deliveroo’s arguments for autonomy (such as selecting time-slots) had a strong organisational character and, on the other, referring to the constant ‘control’ over the ‘rider’ by the company insisting on protocols or on the form in which the service needed to be provided.

Means of production

The other two cases concerned a lawsuit filed by the Spanish social-security authority against Roodfod Spain SL (again Deliveroo).

Also in June the Social Court of Valencia delivered a judgment confirming that the 97 ‘riders’ in the case were in an employment relationship with Deliveroo. The judge ruled in favour of the Spanish social-security authority and decided that the ‘real means’ of production was the digital platform in itself and not the phone and the bicycle, as had been argued in similar cases.

The court stressed that it was the platform which paired supply and demand and where restaurants, consumers and ‘riders’ registered, regardless of whether the execution of the service was feasible. The judge remarked, moreover, that the technical support offered by the online platform was precisely the source of success of the Deliveroo brand.


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

While the court noted that ‘riders’ needed to install the app, this was only to be able to follow the instructions from the company—instructions which had been followed iteratively during the timeframe covered by the case. Importantly, the court noted that the company was the sole holder of the information necessary for the management of the business system and that, although ‘riders’ offered their personal services, it was up to Deliveroo to distribute and assign each delivery.

Detailed instructions

In the latest judgment, in July, the Social Court of Madrid agreed with the previous ruling—that ‘riders’ were subject to an employment relationship. The judge concluded that during the period in which ‘riders’ were linked to Deliveroo they remained under usual labour conditions. Once the assignment was accepted by the ‘rider’, detailed instructions determined by Deliveroo allowed no apparent autonomy to the worker.

The judge stressed that ‘riders’ essentially executed a personal service under organised conditions directed by the company, which had sole control over the ‘Deliveroo’ brand, the online platform and all the information linked to it. The ‘detailed instructions’ criterion and the fact that ‘riders’ had no margin of autonomy once the assignment had been accepted seem to have been the decisive elements of the case.

None of the judgments is final as yet, as appeal is still possible before the social chambers of the supreme courts of the respective regions, but they display a shift from previous decisions where the focus lay on the autonomy of the ‘rider’ and the multilateral aspect of the platform. By contrast, these cases focused on the online platform as the main means of production and on the ‘control’ or ‘detailed instructions’ criterion, which in turn favoured ‘riders’ by identifying them as workers. Importantly, while previous cases were individual, these three represented collectives.

Enormous impact

Whether online-platform workers are classified as workers or self-employed has an enormous impact on the social protection these individuals enjoy. Indeed, because people working with online platforms do not necessarily fit into the traditional moulds of social-security systems they can be left without protection altogether. This is not only a problem for platform workers but extends to most non-standard forms of employment.

There is an evidently incoherent approach towards online-platform work within and among EU member states, frequently to the detriment of individuals who lack legal certainty and often any social protection. This is not a challenge regarding online platforms alone, but rather a larger struggle between a world of new forms of labour and the preservation of traditional social-security systems unable to meet its demands.

While the dynamism generated by digitalisation offers many possibilities, it entails the challenge of adapting social-security systems to respond to a highly dynamic, mobile and segmented labour market. The EU has presented a recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed, which will formally be adopted this autumn. Although the recommendation puts the challenge of non-standard employment at the top of the union’s agenda, given its non-binding nature it is rather doubtful that this alone will have the necessary bite to truly address the challenge of future-proofing social-security systems across Europe.

Ane Aranguiz

Ane Aranguiz is a post-doctoral researcher at Tilburg Law School and at the Faculty of Law of the University of Antwerp. She is a lecturer in European labour law at TLS and is currently working on two Horizon 2020 projects: WorkingYP and EuSocialCit.

Home ・ Politics ・ Spain à l’avant-garde on social protection for platform work?

Most Popular Posts

schools,Sweden,Swedish,voucher,choice Sweden’s schools: Milton Friedman’s wet dreamLisa Pelling
world order,Russia,China,Europe,United States,US The coming world orderMarc Saxer
south working,remote work ‘South working’: the future of remote workAntonio Aloisi and Luisa Corazza
Russia,Putin,assets,oligarchs Seizing the assets of Russian oligarchsBranko Milanovic
Russians,support,war,Ukraine Why do Russians support the war against Ukraine?Svetlana Erpyleva

Most Recent Posts

Gazprom,Putin,Nordstream,Putin,Schröder How the public loses out when politicians cash inKatharina Pistor
defence,europe,spending Ukraine and Europe’s defence spendingValerio Alfonso Bruno and Adriano Cozzolino
North Atlantic Treaty Organization,NATO,Ukraine The Ukraine war and NATO’s renewed credibilityPaul Rogers
transnational list,European constituency,European elections,European public sphere A European constituency for a European public sphereDomènec Ruiz Devesa
hydrogen,gas,LNG,REPowerEU EU hydrogen targets—a neo-colonial resource grabPascoe Sabido and Chloé Mikolajczak

Other Social Europe Publications

The transatlantic relationship
Women and the coronavirus crisis
RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?
US election 2020
Corporate taxation in a globalised era

ETUI advertisement

Bilan social / Social policy in the EU: state of play 2021 and perspectives

The new edition of the Bilan social 2021, co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), reveals that while EU social policy-making took a blow in 2020, 2021 was guided by the re-emerging social aspirations of the European Commission and the launch of several important initiatives. Against the background of Covid-19, climate change and the debate on the future of Europe, the French presidency of the Council of the EU and the von der Leyen commission must now be closely scrutinised by EU citizens and social stakeholders.


AVAILABLE HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Living and working in Europe 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to be a defining force in 2021, and Eurofound continued its work of examining and recording the many and diverse impacts across the EU. Living and working in Europe 2021 provides a snapshot of the changes to employment, work and living conditions in Europe. It also summarises the agency’s findings on issues such as gender equality in employment, wealth inequality and labour shortages. These will have a significant bearing on recovery from the pandemic, resilience in the face of the war in Ukraine and a successful transition to a green and digital future.


AVAILABLE HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

EU Care Atlas: a new interactive data map showing how care deficits affect the gender earnings gap in the EU

Browse through the EU Care Atlas, a new interactive data map to help uncover what the statistics are often hiding: how care deficits directly feed into the gender earnings gap.

While attention is often focused on the gender pay gap (13%), the EU Care Atlas brings to light the more worrisome and complex picture of women’s economic inequalities. The pay gap is just one of three main elements that explain the overall earnings gap, which is estimated at 36.7%. The EU Care Atlas illustrates the urgent need to look beyond the pay gap and understand the interplay between the overall earnings gap and care imbalances.


BROWSE THROUGH THE MAP

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

Towards a new Minimum Wage Policy in Germany and Europe: WSI minimum wage report 2022

The past year has seen a much higher political profile for the issue of minimum wages, not only in Germany, which has seen fresh initiatives to tackle low pay, but also in those many other countries in Europe that have embarked on substantial and sustained increases in statutory minimum wages. One key benchmark in determining what should count as an adequate minimum wage is the threshold of 60 per cent of the median wage, a ratio that has also played a role in the European Commission's proposals for an EU-level policy on minimum wages. This year's WSI Minimum Wage Report highlights the feasibility of achieving minimum wages that meet this criterion, given the political will. And with an increase to 12 euro per hour planned for autumn 2022, Germany might now find itself promoted from laggard to minimum-wage trailblazer.


FREE DOWNLOAD

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us on social media

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube