Even for the Court of Milan food-riders are self-employed

The “battle” on the type of employment relationship of the so-called riders in the age of the gig economy continues. A few months after the judgement issued by the Court of Turin ruling that the six riders of Foodora could not be deemed employees of the company, the Court of Milan ruled on 4 July on a similar case, rejecting the appeal of a former rider who claimed an employment relationship with another company in the food distribution sector. The reasons of the judgement have not yet been filed, and thus it will be necessary to wait for them to find out if they are in line with what has already been ruled by the Court of Turin. In said case, the relationship was qualified as a self-employed relationship, since the Foodora riders were not obligated to provide the service and were not under the direction and organisational control of the employer. In fact, in order to exclude a position of employment, the actual methods used to implement that work relationship became relevant, managed through digital platform and a smartphone app. The matter in these past few days has become the topic of wide political and union debate to the point that on 18 July 2018 the first draft related to the financial and regulatory understanding governing riders has been signed. This took place with an understanding signed by Confetra, Fedit, Assologistica, Federspedi, Confartigianato trasporti, Fita – CNA, Filt CGIL, Fit CISL and Uiltrasporti within the logistics National Collective Bargaining Agreement (CCNL).