Deliveroo must definitively adhere to the collective labor agreement and pay out pensions

The Supreme Court finds that Deliveroo meal deliverers are definitively covered by the collective labor agreement for professional freight transport. In addition, the company must pay pensions to delivery drivers retroactively.

The ruling is the final piece in a long legal battle between Deliveroo and FNV, over the question of whether a meal deliverer is a self-employed person or an employee. The judge has now ruled in favor of the union again in cassation.

Deliveroo started a delivery service in the Netherlands in 2015, but is no longer active. The company left last year, just before the Supreme Court was to hear the case.

The company’s 9,000 meal deliverers were offered a compensation scheme. If they agreed, they could no longer claim back payments from the company. According to Deliveroo, 90 percent of employees took advantage of this scheme.

In the other lawsuit, the judge ruled today that Deliveroo also wrongly failed to pay pensions for employees for six months. The amount that the company must pay to Pensioenfonds Vervoer is almost 640,000 euros.

FNV is currently conducting similar lawsuits against the Temper and Uber platforms. “And we also believe that Uber Eats should adjust its business model in response to this ruling,” says FNV director Anja Dijkman.

“We want enforcement, because it cannot be the case that these types of companies continue in the same way in this country.”