Riders are self-employed professionals

The Court of Turin, with judgement No. 778 dated 11 April 2018, rejected the appeal lodged by 6 riders against a well-known German food delivery company. In this case, the riders had opposed the company’s termination of the coordinated and continuous cooperation with them following their protests, dating back to 2016, to have a fairer remuneration and regulatory treatment, claiming the existence of a subordinate employment relationship. The riders claimed, in fact, that the company (i) gave them detailed “directives” concerning, among others, the time and the location of work, the verification of their presence at the starting locations, the obligation to deliver on time, and (ii) exercised power of control and supervision by monitoring their productivity. At the end of the proceedings, the Court found instead that they were not employees since “they were not obligated to perform the work and the employer was not obligated to receive their work“. According to the Court, this characteristic in the employment relationship is “in itself decisive for the purpose of excluding the applicants’ claim as to the managerial and organisational power of the employer because it is clear that, if the employer cannot demand from the worker the performance of the work, the employer cannot consequently exercise managerial and organisational power over them“. Among other things, from a practical review of the procedures governing the relationship, it emerged, in the opinion of the Court, that the riders, after confirming their availability, could revoke it, that is not show up to perform the work. And in such cases, no disciplinary penalties were imposed on them, which also excluded their submission to the disciplinary power of the alleged employer. Consequently, according to the Court of Turin, even the claims related to the voiding, ineffectiveness, and unlawfulness of the termination (rectius dismissal) and the other requests so related could not be accepted, with the consequent rejection of the appeal.