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Court: Wolt riders employees
The ruling took almost five years to be delivered.
The Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) has rules that Wolt food delivery riders are workers, not self-employed. The court delivered its precedent on 22 May.
In the case, the court had to decide whether an occupational safety and health authority could force the company to keep working time records for all the hours worked by and resulting payments made to the riders. The SAC’s decision was about whether the riders worked as employees or self-employed people. In addition, the court had to assess whether the Working Hours Act applied to the riders.
The SAC found, after holistic deliberation on the case, that employment pursuant to the Employment Contracts Act could be considered to exist between the company and its riders. The ruling on the riders’ employee status was not unanimous; the court arrived at it via a 4–1 vote.
Regarding the Working Hours Act, the SAC stated that the Act could not be applied to the riders, as, among other reasons, they had extensive scope to choose their working hours.
Atte Rytkönen-Sandberg, a Vice President at Suomen Yrittäjät, the Finnish SME association, says the grounds for the ruling are very narrow.
“What also remains partly unclear and open to interpretation is the grounds used to arrive at the result, which departs from general administrative law,” Rytkönen-Sandberg says.
The result took almost five years, proceeding through various courts.
“Such long procedures are regrettable, both for the businesses and the legal protection of the people doing the work.
“In terms of the decision, it’s noteworthy that it can’t be used to arrive at the conclusion that all food delivery riders or other people working in any other industry are always employees or always self-employed. In future, meeting the criteria for employment and drawing the distinction between employment and self-employment must continue to be made case-by-case,” Rytkönen-Sandberg says.
The background to the SAC’s ruling is the stance taken by the Southern Finland Regional State Administrative Agency in 2021 that riders must fall under the remit of the Working Hours Act. In turn, the Hämeenlinna Administrative Court ruled in early 2024 that Wolt riders are independently self-employed.
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