Deliveroo loses court battle

A MADRID court has ruled that Deliveroo drivers are employees and not self employed. 

Sitting in judgement in a lawsuit filed by the country’s Department of Social Security, it ruled against Roodfoods Spain SL (Deliveroo) and declared that the delivery people were subject to an “employment relationship with the defendant company at the time they rendered their services.” 

In a 26-page judgement, the magistrate concluded that “the essential thing is that once the order has been accepted, it had to be complied with (by the distributors) in accordance with the detailed instructions determined by the company, with no appreciable margin of autonomy for the worker.” 

The magistrate also said that the company organised all of the activities of the workers, to the point that it was the company itself that managed the tips of the distributors, “determining the way in which they could be paid and including them in the invoices, which were prepared by the company itself.” 

This decision can be appealed against at the Social Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Madrid.