The Spanish Supreme Court teaches us something about the work of riders and also about the subordination of the XXI century

Abstract

On 25 September 2020, the Spanish Supreme Court, for the first time, ruled on the working relationship of the riders of Glovo. The judges, overturning the first and the second instance judgements, have considered that the delivery man is an employee, ensuring the traditional indices of trabajo por cuenta ajena in new forms of work via digital platform and, particulary, given the existence of the result alienation as well as the organization alienation. The dispute, as in other legal systems, is an opportunity to assess the traditional categories in which to frame a working relationship and check their value in the era of technological development of the entrepreneurial organization: the classic dichotomy between salaried employment and self-employment does not fail in front of new forms of work and, although renewed, resists.

Keywords

• on demand work
• dependent workers
• subordination
• case law