Labour Research May 2023

European news

Deliveroo workers not self-employed

The supreme court in the Netherlands has published its final ruling on the employment status of those working for the food delivery company, Deliveroo.

It supports the decisions of lower courts and agrees with the advice of the Advocate General, concluding that the workers concerned were employed.

Deliveroo has already abandoned its Dutch operations (see Labour Research, September 2022, page 8). But for Zakaria Boufangacha, vice chair of the FNV union which brought the case, this is still an important decision.

“This is the long-awaited and very justified verdict for Deliveroo’s delivery drivers and for all those other people who are forced into bogus self-employment through strange constructions”, he said. “The Netherlands has just become a lot fairer with this ruling.”