A lower court has found the legal employment presumption can be rebutted and an Uber Eats courier should be self-employed.
In 2024, the administrative commission for qualification of work had decided that three Uber Eats meal delivery workers who had pursued a case of employment misclassification against the platform had to be qualified as working under an employment contract. Uber Eats challenged this decision in Court. The first decision of the lower Court was issued on 12th of June, and decided that :
– The legal presumption of employment (in force in Belgium since 1/1/2023, based on the first version of the European directive) was applicable, as a large majority of criteria were met
– But that this legal presumption could be rebutted and that the workers had to be qualified as working under a self-employed contract.
This decision of the lower Court is inconsistent with prior decisions of the higher Courts that decided that 125 riders delivering for Deliveroo should be requalified as employees, and that an Uber driver (ride-hailing service) should also be requalified as an employee.
The riders (and their Union) are appealing against this decision. They have confidence that the appeal will not confirm this bad decisions as:
– This decision is inconsistent with other Belgian decisions
– The appeal contradicted the decision of the lower court in all other court cases
– Rebuttal of the presumption is done lightly when the legal doctrine says the presumption should only be rebutted if there are facts incompatible with the result given by the presumption.