A law against Uberization, and fast!

Since the health crisis, delivery platforms, whose model is based on the one of the big platforms such as Deliveroo or UberEats, have established in Luxembourg. Like their “big” competitors, these platforms work with fake freelancers who, although they do not have an employee status, are in a very clear subordination relationship with their sponsor.

Thus, these platforms, such as WeDely or Goosty, not only set the remuneration of the delivery men and women or the route they must take, but also evaluate their performance, reserving the right to punish them in case of non-respect of the instructions.

These practices make it possible to exploit delivery men and women who find themselves in more than precarious situations, but they also undermine labor law and the Luxembourg social model, which is based on the status of employees. Moreover, it is also the profession of the deliverer which, in the long term, is thus sold off.

Everywhere in Europe, legislative initiatives to curb this phenomenon are emerging. The European Commission has proposed a directive on this subject, which provides for the possibility of reclassifying the labor relationship between the platform and its workers as an employee contract. Recently, the European Parliament has even proposed to go further and introduce a “refragable presumption” of an employee relationship between the worker and the platform. This provision would allow national authorities to requalify the existing link between a platform and its workers and it would be up to the firm to provide the opposite proof.

In Luxembourg, the Chamber of Employees (CSL) has drafted a law proposal along the same lines. This proposal is obviously supported and carried by the OGBL. This law proposal has also been introduced in the Chamber of Deputies by an opposition party. At the CSL’s New Year’s reception, the Minister of Labor announced that he himself had worked on a draft law.

What is certain is that it is urgent!

Hundreds of delivery men and women are currently being exploited by delivery platforms. Some of them have chosen to organize themselves within the OGBL and thus commit themselves to better working conditions.

In this context, the OGBL’s Commerce Syndicate, which brings together platform delivery workers, is calling on the government and in particular the Minister of Labor: There is still time to legislate before the legislative elections!

Press release by the OGBL Commerce Syndicate,
February 16, 2023