AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (CN) — Drivers for the ride-sharing app Uber are employed by the company and are not contractors, a court in Amsterdam found on Monday.
Judges at the District Court of Amsterdam sided with the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions, ruling that drivers meet all of the criteria to be considered employees and should be covered by the Dutch taxi sector’s collective-bargaining agreement.
The relationship between Uber and its drivers “contains all the features of an employment contract,” the three-judge panel wrote. Uber has some 5,000 drivers in the Netherlands.
It’s the latest win for labor organizers against the San Francisco-based company. In May, the United Kingdom's highest court also found that Uber drivers are employees of the tech giant.
The Dutch court was unconvinced by Uber’s argument that it is merely a technology company and only connects riders to drivers, rather than being a transport service company. The ruling points out that drivers are subjected to Uber’s algorithm, which determines which rides are available and what fare is paid and leaves drivers with little control over which rides to accept.
“This decision shows what we have been saying for years: Uber is an employer and the drivers are employees, so Uber must adhere to the collective labor agreement for taxi transport,” the union’s vice president, Zakaria Boufangacha, said in a statement. His organization had attempted to mediate an agreement with Uber in 2020 but those talks failed.
According to the union, all Uber drivers in the Netherlands now automatically become employees and must be paid and treated accordingly. Drivers’ wages will increase and they will also be able to fight termination and qualify for sick leave.
The court also ordered Uber to pay 50,000 euros ($59,000) to the union for failing to meet the terms of the labor agreement. The Federation of Dutch Trade Unions represents about 1 million workers in the Netherlands, in sectors ranging from the construction industry to healthcare. It is the largest labor union in the country.
Uber said it plans to appeal the decision.
"We are disappointed with this decision because we know that the overwhelming majority of drivers wish to remain independent," Maurits Schönfeld, Uber's general manager for northern Europe, said in a statement.
The Federation of Dutch Trade Unions won a similar case against meal delivery company Deliveroo earlier this year, though the U.K.-based company has appealed the ruling.
Uber has also faced high-profile legal challenges to its contractor classifications in its home country. In August 2020, a San Francisco Superior Court judge ordered Uber and its competitor Lyft to classify drivers as employees pending the final result of a lawsuit brought by the state of California.
A state appeals court upheld that decision, but just weeks later voters approved a ballot measure that exempts firms like Uber and Lyft from a state labor law and lets them classify workers as independent contractors.
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