Spain: labour inspectorate recognises 4,000 independent delivery workers for Amazon as employees

The Spanish labour inspectorate ruled in favour of the UGT trade union and classified over 4,000 Amazon delivery workers, who operate using their own vehicles to deliver parcels under instructions from the Amazon Flex delivery platform, as employees. The inspectorate found that these delivery workers, who were paid per task without social security contributions from Amazon, were wrongly declared as autonomos (self-employed). It is therefore demanding that the company pays out the unpaid social security contributions, which the unions have calculated at some €6.16 million. The claim impacts two Amazon subsidiaries in Spain. In the case of Amazon SpainFulfillment, 3,261 “false” autonomos have been identified in Madrid and Barcelona, while at Amazon Road Transport, the number is 805, located in Madrid. This decision comes after several labour inspectorate rulings in a similar vein, concerning delivery platforms Deliveroo and Glovo. It also comes shortly after the publication of a Supreme Court decision recognising a courier from the delivery platform Glovo as an employee, while for its part (see article n°12161), the Ministry of Labour is preparing a new regulation to regulate the activity of delivery workers on e-commerce platforms. Amazon says it is in “total disagreement” with the decision and plans to launch an appeal.