The court decision recognizing the employment contract between the courier and Uber Eats has been annulled

The Lisbon Labor Court ruled to overturn a judgment that recognized an employment contract between a courier and a digital platform due to the lack of mention of the company, in this case Uber.

The court decision, published this Wednesday by the Eco newspaper and to which Lusa also had access, states that personal service by registered mail from a company registered in the National Register of Legal Entities “must be addressed to its headquarters, according to this protocol . “

However, according to the court, this “did not happen,” therefore “the invalidity arising in connection with the failure to fulfill obligations is considered confirmed, as well as the annulment of the actions that depended on this, namely the decision made.”

At the end of January, the Lisbon District Court recognized the existence of an open-ended employment contract between the Uber Eats Portugal courier and the company, retroactive to May 2023.

“[…] The existence of an open-ended contract of employment between Mr. Zaber Ahmed and the defendant Uber Eats Portugal is admitted,” the above-mentioned judgment states.

The agreement in question will have retroactive effect from May 1, 2023, when changes to the Labor Code come into force.

This was the first time a Portuguese court applied the presumption of employment between couriers and digital platforms.

Uber then challenged the decision, saying the company was not notified because the court sent the notice through a change of address to Glovo.

According to the document to which Lusa had access, “the accused requested that the entire process be quashed and requested that she be notified of the verdict” and also filed “an appeal against the verdict rendered in the case, therefore the notice of the judgment was found to be futile.”

“The invalidity of the entire process occurs in cases of incompetence in the original petition, a defect not discussed here. Invalidity arose in the act of summoning the defendant, therefore it is necessary to cancel only what was drawn up after this, and this, like the verdict, which has already been cancelled, says the decision.

Essentially, the process goes back to the beginning, and Uber can now argue against the presumption of employment.

Meanwhile, three Portuguese courts have already ruled in favor of the independence and flexibility of couriers, namely Vila Real, Agueda and Braganca.

An official Uber source said in a written response to Lusa that couriers “have already made it clear that they want to maintain their independence and freedom to use digital platforms whenever and wherever they want.”

“For our part, we will continue to advocate for the need to maintain the flexibility that couriers seek and that it is compatible with the rights and protections that all workers, regardless of their status, should have access to,” the same source said.

The basis for the decision to recognize the employment contract was, among other things, the fact that it was the platform that unilaterally established the value of the amounts to be paid to the courier for delivery, without prior agreement on the criteria. used to determine values.

On the other hand, Uber Eats Portugal “monitors and supervises” these activities, “limits the autonomy of the activity provider regarding the organization of work”, and also “exercises the power to exclude future activities on the platform through account deactivation.”

The court also concluded that the courier was part of the Uber Eats Portugal organization, which “is not a mere intermediary in the conclusion of contracts for services between commercial establishments and couriers.”

Last November, then-Minister of Labor and Social Security Ana Méndez Godinho said in Parliament that 1,000 actions were being taken to recognize the employment contracts of digital platform workers in irregular employment.