Meal delivery company Deliveroo does not have to employ cycle courier Sytze Ferwerda. Ferwerda refused to work as a zzp'er for Deliveroo, but according to the Amsterdam court, the working relationship between the parties cannot be qualified as an employment contract.
Last year, Deliveroo decided to work only with self-employed delivery drivers. This offended courier Ferwerda and many of his colleagues. They initially worked in salaried employment. Ferwerda accused Deliveroo of false self-employment and filed a lawsuit. In doing so, he received support from the trade union and even from politicians. The delivery man managed to raise over 7,000 euros for a lawsuit through a crowdfunding campaign by the Dutch Labour Party.
'Do speak of zzp construction'
According to the court, however, there is indeed a zzp construction. Since becoming self-employed, Ferwerda has been allowed to decide when to work, refuse orders and can even decide not to work in time slots he has reserved himself without consequences.
Labour law does not take platform economy into account
The judge did argue that current labour law does not take into account the employment relationships that arise from the platform economy. "If it is considered undesirable for platforms like Deliveroo to offer such contracts, the legislator will have to take measures against it," the ruling reads.
