The Court of Cassation considers that bicycle deliverers are employees, not self-entrepreneurs

It's an unprecedented decision. In a judgment delivered Wednesday, November 28, the Court of Cbadation considers that the bicycle deliverymen, who exercise their activity under independent status, are employees, not self-employed. The highest court in France had been seized by a courier of Take eat easy, a company placed in liquidation since.

This bike delivery man "had appealed to the tribunal prud'homale of a request for requalification of the contractual relation in contract of employment", explains the Court of Cbadation. "The industrial tribunal and then the court of appeal declared themselves incompetent to know of this request," She says. It is therefore up to the Social Chamber of the Court of Cbadation to decide on the question.

Thus, the social chamber of the Court of Cbadation emphasizes in its judgment that "a power of direction and control of the execution of the delivery of the deliveryman", which characterizes "a bond of subordination" between the work of the courier and the company Take eat easy. Clearly, the highest French court considers that the "geo-location for real-time monitoring" the driver is a tool to check if he is doing his job properly, and, if necessary, to punish him. The Court of Cbadation asks the Paris Court of Appeal to reconsider this.

The meal deliverers had mobilized in the summer of 2017 for their working conditions. Jerome Pimot, spokesman of the Collective Autonomous Delivery of Paris, had denounced the abuse of the status of auto-entrepreneur imposed on couriers. Others had brought the case to justice, but had not won.

In addition, the Paris prosecutor's office has entrusted the Central Office for Combating Illegal Work (OCLTI) with a preliminary inquiry into Deliveroo France's home delivery platform, according to a journalist from Mediapart, who said Wednesday that the labor inspectorate and Urssaf had already decided that the bike deliverymen were conventional employees.