British food delivery company Deliveroo fined 375,000€ for abusing workers

British food delivery company Deliveroo has been fined 375,000 euros after a French court found it guilty of abusing workers.

 On Tuesday 19, April a Paris court fined Deliveroo 375,000 euros after it was found guilty of “undeclared labour” by contracting freelance delivery riders instead of contracting full-time employees. British online food delivery company Deliveroo was founded in London in 2013, and it currently operates in over two hundred locations including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Ireland and Italy.

The news follows a series of moves by courts in an attempt to recognise the rights of “gig economy” workers, who often fall under the umbrella of independent freelancers when hired by firms, making them ineligible for health insurance and other benefits.

The fine was the maximum that had been sought out by prosecutors and the court also gave a suspended sentence to two former French executives for one-year prison sentences. A third executive received a suspended four-month sentence as well as a 10,000 euro fine for complying with the system. Deliveroo was ordered to pay 50,000 euros in damages to five separate labour unions.

Several Deliveroo riders spoke in court stating that they had searched for flexible jobs, to then find themselves under extreme pressure to work at inconvenient hours, limited days off as well as fines if the food was not delivered fast enough.

France’s URSSAF agency, which covers employer social security collections is currently seeking to recover an estimated 9.7million euros from Deliveroo with a previous court case in 2020 ordering the immediate seizure of three million euros from Deliveroo’s account.

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