Delivery firm Wolt plans to appeal a preliminary decision by the Supreme Administrative Court about the status of its couriers, it announced on Wednesday.
In a decision in May, the court ruled that the company's couriers were employees, not entrepreneurs, as Wolt had claimed.
Not long after the Supreme Administrative Court's decision, Wolt said the couriers should be able to decide their employment status themselves.
In a press release on Wednesday, Wolt said that it found errors with the court's decision, in terms of the application of the law and the legal procedure.
The company now argues that the court made a misstep in not considering a case between the European Court of Justice and the UK delivery firm Yodel. In a preliminary ruling, among other things, the court said that because the couriers are not required to provide services exclusively to Yodel — and are also able to work for competitors — means they should be classified as 'self-employed independent contractors'.
Working time directive
Wolt also noted that the Supreme Administrative Court did not ask the EU court for clarification about the working time directive, which sets out safety and health requirements for workers in the EU.
Those requirements include minimum periods of daily and weekly rest, annual leave, breaks and other considerations.
The EU court's ruling found that in order for an individual to be considered an employee under the auspices of the working time directive, they must be in a dependent relationship with their employer. In other words, for a person to be deemed an employee, they cannot have the freedom to choose when and how they plan to take on requested assignments and tasks.
Wolt said that the Supreme Administrative Court's decision could have big consequences for the company's couriers, platform-based employment and the future of working life in Finland across a number of sectors.
"It affects everyone from doctors to house cleaners to babysitters, in principle all work that is carried out on digital platforms," Wolt's VP of global public policy, Samuel Laurinkari said in the release.
