Deliveroo France and three of its former executives were sentenced on April 19 for “ hidden work ” Where ” complicity in concealed work between 2015 and 2017. For the president of the 31st chamber of the judicial court, the offense is established, reports theAFP. The court followed the requisitions of the prosecutor Céline Ducournau for this first trial of uberization in France.
The Deliveroo system doomed
Deliveroo will have to paya fine of 375,000 euros and display his conviction on his site for a month, to inform its deliverers. The company will also have to pay 50,000 euros in damages to each syndicate civil parties, the CGT, Union Solidaires, SUD-Commerces et services, SUD-Commerces et services Île-de-France, the National Union of Light Transport, for ” moral damage “.
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Two former executives of the company were sentenced for the same reasons to 12 months suspended prison sentence and 30,000 euros fine. They also have a suspended ban on running a business for 5 years. A third executive is sentenced to 4 months suspended prison sentence and a fine of 10,000 euros for ” complicity “.
During the hearing week in March, a dozen delivery people testified at the bar about their experience at Deliveroo. They described the difficulties in obtaining the best slots, the surveillance that the platform exerted on them.
For the prosecutor, the wearing of the uniform, the training, the zoning of the deliveries, the reservation of the best slots for the best deliverers, constitute a body of clues sufficient to undermine the status of intermediary of which the platform takes advantage.
According to Céline Ducournau, it is a question of ” fake self-employed » and therefore concealed work. She regretted during the hearing the absence from the dock of William Shu, co-founder and CEO of Deliveroo, real inventor of the platform system.
A European movement
All over Europe, in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Uber drivers or Deliveroo deliverers have obtained similar victories. At European level, a draft Commission directive aims to establish a presumption of employment to put an end to ” fake self-employed » platforms.
In France, Deliveroo informed theAFP that an appeal was being considered. The company will also have to face another procedure, the URSSAF is claiming 9.7 million euros from it to make up for the social security contributions avoided by the use of self-employed workers.