Requalification of Independent Worker Contracts: Understanding Subordination Links in Digital Platform Employment Relationships

Extract

[...] 1221-1 and states that this can be overturned and can lead to a requalification as a employment contract if the conditions of the services provided place the worker in a permanent legal subordination link A simple presumption of non-salaried status In accordance with article 1353 of the Civil Code providing that "che who claims the execution of an obligation must prove it », the burden of proof of the existence of an employment contract lies in principle with the person who invokes it, most often, this being the worker. Conversely, article L8221-6 of the Labour Code establishes a presumption of non-salaried status for natural persons registered in the trade and companies register, in the trades register, in the register of commercial agents or with the Urssaf for the recovery of family allowance contributions . ». [...]

[...] In a judgment delivered on 8 October 2020, the Paris Court of Appeal dismissed the entrepreneur's entire claims, seeking to recognize the existence of a work contract with the company and, as a result, to condemn it to pay various sums to him for the execution and termination of the work contract. The independent worker then filed a cassation appeal presented in a single ground divided into six branches. The appellant reproached the Paris Court of Appeal for having violated Articles L. 8221-6 and L. [...]

[...] The characterization of a link of subordination in relation to reality contractual The Court of Cassation has thus highlighted the existence of a bundle of indices allowing, in view of the factual elements, to characterize a link of legal subordination this recognition is however not its consequences The assessment by the Court of the factual elements Thus as the social chamber of the Court of Cassation reminded in a ruling dated 19 December 2000, " the existence of a labor relationship depends neither on the expressed will of the parties nor on the designation given by them to their convention, but on the factual conditions in which the workers' activity is exercised ». The Court of Cassation in this ruling analyzed the facts, the contractual relationship between the worker and the company, and redefined the contours of the notion of subordination link and modernized it. In fact, this point twelve of the ruling notes that the worker could not create their own client base and could not work for a competing company for a certain period, which it describes as an effective condition of a legal subordination. [...]

[...] This analysis of the notion is new and complements the definition given by the ruling of 13 November 1996, adding a cluster of indicators to its analysis. Furthermore, the Court deduced from the fact that the worker had the obligation to wear a uniform with the company's logo at the risk of sanction, and in certain conditions, he was obliged to accept the order as soon as he was connected without being able to refuse it, that the company had a clear power of control and direction over the worker and, by this fact, that he was integrated into an organized service. [...]

[...] 1221-1 of the Labor Code, stating that natural persons carrying out activities requiring registration on the registers or directories listed in Article L. 8221-6 of the Labor Code are presumed not to be bound by a contract with the principal, but stating that this presumption can be overturned when these persons provide services under conditions that place them in a permanent legal subordination to the principal and that the subordination link is characterized by the execution of work under the authority of an employer who has the power to give orders and directives, to control their execution and to sanction the subordinate's failings. [...]