{"id":24258,"date":"2019-11-04T10:18:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T09:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.delucapartners.it\/news\/the-contract-in-which-the-customer-carries-out-a-control-system-on-the-work-activity-with-automated-tools-is-unlawful\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T16:14:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:14:51","slug":"the-contract-in-which-the-customer-carries-out-a-control-system-on-the-work-activity-with-automated-tools-is-unlawful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.delucapartners.it\/en\/insights\/case-law-en\/the-contract-in-which-the-customer-carries-out-a-control-system-on-the-work-activity-with-automated-tools-is-unlawful\/","title":{"rendered":"The contract in which the customer carries out a control system on the work activity with automated tools is unlawful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Court of Padua, under\nruling no. 550 of July 16, 2019, addressed the issue of employment based on the\nconcept of hetero-direction of work in the light of technological evolution,\noutlining the criteria for identifying the actual employer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Facts of the case<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The case in question originates\nfrom the appeal filed by four employees of a Cooperative Company, who were\ncontractors for the management of warehouse logistics services and who claimed\nthat they had ascertained that they were executing their employment contract\ndirectly with the customer. The complainants&#8217; duties were those of &#8220;<em>pickers<\/em>&#8220;, i.e. pickers and handlers\nof goods, in relation to which they were placed at the first level of the\nMultiservice National Collective Bargaining Agreement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The employees&#8217; request was\nbased on the assumption that (i) all the means necessary for the execution of\nthe contract were the property of the customer and (ii) the working\ninstructions were issued directly by the customer, either through a mobile\nterminal available to the workers or, by voice, through a connection using a\nheadset and a microphone. This control system allowed the customer company to\nknow, in real time, the operations carried out by the individual and the\nduration of each operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The four workers also claimed\nthat the work was controlled by the logistics manager of the customer and by\none of its employees, who reprimanded workers who did not complete the minimum\nnumber of hourly operations required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The workers in question claimed\nthe application of the National Collective Bargaining Agreement of the services\nsector, applied by the customer, with classification at the 5th level, or the\napplication of the Multiservices National Collective Bargaining Agreement of\nthe contractor with classification at the 3rd level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Said workers therefore\ndemanded, that, primarily, the execution of an employment contract be\nascertained directly with the customer, with the sentencing of the latter to\npay the due wage differences and that, secondly, the defendant companies be\nsentenced to pay the wage differences in relation to the classification in the\n3 level of the Multiservices National Collective Bargaining Agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The decision of the Court of Padua<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the opinion of the Court of\nFirst Instance, the fact that the customer was in a position to <strong>process the data of the workers of\nthird-party companies by means of tools potentially suitable for the remote\ncontrol of workers is an argument for considering that it exercised the powers\nof the employer<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The customer, in fact,\nexercised a specific and timely control over the managers of the cooperative.\nThis control was not limited to the preparation of general directives on the\nexecution of the contract, but provided for the holding of two meetings a day\nin the presence of the workers and the warehouse manager. In addition, the\nJudge pointed out that it was suspected that there was a coincidence in time\nbetween the reminders that the owners of the cooperative addressed to the\nemployees and the discussions they held with the person in charge of the\ncustomer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The work organisation of the\n&#8220;<em>pickers<\/em>&#8221; was also fully\nautomated and the software through which this automation was realised was\nexclusively available to the customer. The software recorded the individual\noperations of the workers, associating a code to the name that it recognised\nvocally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultimately, the Court believed\nthat the overall management of the company&#8217;s activities and the work management\nof the individual employees could be understood as a computerised relationship\nwith the customer, leaving the cooperative with a residual function of control\nand disciplinary intervention, that was more or less solicited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In light of the foregoing, the\nCourt of Padua accepted the workers&#8217; request, considering them employees of the\ncustomer, sentencing the latter (i) to classify them at the 5th level of the\nServices Sector National Collective Bargaining Agreement, (ii) to pay each of\nthem the relative salary differences and (iii) to pay the social security and\nwelfare contributions due on the basis of this contract. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Court of Padua, under ruling no. 550 of July 16, 2019, addressed the issue of employment based on the concept of hetero-direction of work in the light of technological evolution, outlining the criteria for identifying the actual employer. Facts of the case The case in question originates from the appeal filed by four employees [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[167,177,190],"tags":[837],"class_list":{"0":"post-24258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-case-law","7":"category-insights","9":"tag-appalto-en"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The contract in which the customer carries out a control system on the work activity with automated tools is unlawful - De Luca &amp; Partners<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.delucapartners.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24258\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The contract in which the customer carries out a control system on the work activity with automated tools is unlawful - De Luca &amp; Partners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Court of Padua, under ruling no. 550 of July 16, 2019, addressed the issue of employment based on the concept of hetero-direction of work in the light of technological evolution, outlining the criteria for identifying the actual employer. 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