Haro on uberization!
While networking platforms like Uber Eats, Just Eat, Deliveroo or their little sisters have experienced a certain craze during confinement, clouds are darkening their horizon in France.
Delivery men, supported and encouraged by unions, intend to rush into a breach opened by the Court of Cassation last March to undermine the so-called “
uberisation
” model, based on the idea that the delivery man is not an employee but a self-employed person.
Read also: Justice requalifies an Uber driver as an employee: are the players in uberization threatened?
Reminder of the facts: in March, the highest French judicial body confirmed a judgment of the Paris Court of Appeal.
The latter recognized the existence of a “
link of subordination
” between a driver working with the Uber platform and the latter.
And, in doing so, the Court of Cassation considered that the link between these two parties should take the form of an "
employment contract
".
Much commented on, the judgment delighted the CGT union representatives, who analyzed it as proof that the model of networking platforms was based on a twist of the Labor Code.
Since then, delivery people have taken action.
At the end of November, the CGT Uber Eats / Deliveroo union in Lyon supported the submission of six delivery cases to the labor courts, so that their employee status is recognized.
The lawyer carrying the files intended in particular to rely on a decision of the industrial tribunal of Paris, dated last February, which concluded that there was indeed a “
link of legal subordination
” between a delivery person and Deliveroo.
"
It is [...] necessary to note the existence of an employment contract of indefinite duration
" between the two parts, determined the industrial tribunal.
Towards a “
snowball
” effect
?
This Tuesday, it is the turn of the CGT Syndicate of bicycle couriers of the Gironde to go on the offensive.
A “
ten files
”, among which appear “
only two, three trade unionists
” were deposited in the morning, explains to
Figaro
the representative of the organization, Jérémy Wick.
Himself a delivery man and engaged in a long-standing showdown with the platforms, the trade unionist is one of the professionals who requested a requalification.
"
It's disguised wages, the platforms piss on the Labor Code and the situation is
getting
worse from year to year,
" he justifies bluntly.
The process is expected to take between two and three years, with the understanding that platforms will appeal in every case and at every step to delay the process.
Nevertheless, the delivery man is confident: “
Companies are betting that it will take years to discourage us, but we are seeing more and more delivery people wanting to get started.
There is a snowball effect, the platforms do not realize what will happen to them in the face
”, wants to believe the Bordelais.
“
Until now, Deliveroo had a huge turnover, the delivery people changed quickly before they had enough.
Now even newcomers are quickly realizing the situation.
All this
has accelerated with the Covid,
”he says.
Read also: Bike delivery men band together in cooperatives to free themselves from Uber Eats and Deliveroo
However, these legal proceedings can only concern a part of the deliverers, not those who sublet accounts without declaring it or without having documents in order.
A minority, assure the platforms, when the delivery men themselves denounce a growing proportion of these shadow delivery men.
The decision to attack the platforms was not the subject of a consultation between Bordeaux and Lyon, assures Jérémy Wick.
Still, these close procedures give the effect of a group fire against the giants of the sector.
"
It is especially the sign of a fed up, sighs the trade unionist.
The current conditions are so bad that we no longer have a choice.
The deputies (LFI) François Ruffin and Leïla Chaibi accompanied me during a race a few days ago in Bordeaux, and we saw seven delivery people going to look for food at the Restos du cœur in ten minutes,
”he recalls. .
"
Too greedy
", the leaders of the sector have turned their backs on couriers and restaurant owners, he adds.
"The wheel has been turning in the direction of the delivery men for some time"
Jeremy Wick
The deliverers therefore expect to be recognized as employees at the end of the legal procedure.
Or, failing that, force the heavyweights in the sector to negotiate new rights for bicycle couriers.
"
We want the platforms to respect our status as auto-entrepreneurs, that we can negotiate our prices, have more social rights and better social coverage,
" he says.
By becoming employees, the couriers concerned could also recover compensation in transit.
But this is not the essential, sweeps the CGT representative: "
our objective is above all to serve as models and inspire other workers
".
For the representatives, "
the wheel has been turning in the direction of the delivery men for some time
."
This is evidenced by the increased interest of the State in their profession, as shown by the Frouin report, unveiled recently.
"
The government is progressing little by little on these subjects
", recognizes Jérémy Wick.
And, in the longer term, the couriers hope that their fight will be useful for other professions, in order to "
define healthy bases for future sectors which will be uberized
".
Battle of jurisprudence
Despite the length of the proceedings, the couriers have jurisprudence with them, argue the local CGT organizations.
For now, legal actions to obtain a requalification remain few, although they have multiplied in recent days.
Opposite, the platforms do not intend to let it go, hammering that wage labor is not the panacea for the overwhelming majority of their workers.
"
The vast majority of delivery people choose Uber Eats for this flexibility and independence,
" explains the American giant.
And to quote a survey carried out by Ipsos among its delivery men and dated November, showing that more than three quarters of the people questioned "
say they are satisfied with their delivery activity with Uber Eats
".
In addition, the group recalls that recent court decisions, in June then in July at the industrial tribunal in Paris and then in October in Boulogne-Billancourt "
came to overturn and / or limit the scope
" of the decision of the Court of Cassation Of March.
"
The judgment of the Court of Cassation has not resulted in immediate or automatic requalification of all drivers using the Uber application or even had a consequence on the case law in the matter
", raises the American group.
And recent decisions "
demonstrate that the position of the Court of Cassation is not considered unanimously and automatically applicable to other requests for requalification
", he underlines.
Asked, the British Deliveroo has not yet responded to our requests.
The battle is therefore being fought on several fronts.
In the courts, first of all, as well as within the industrial tribunals, where the thorny issue of uberization raises heated debates.
And in the street, as well as through the media: the Lyon delivery union, for example, mobilized on Saturday, disrupting the proper functioning of a few restaurants in the capital of the Gauls.
The
2.0 “
class struggle
” around uberization continues, and it is on track to last.
