Spanish Court Rules: Amazon Violated Labor Law With Delivery App

A Spanish court has ruled that Amazon broke labor laws by forcing more than 2,000 delivery drivers to use an app that the company controlled for scheduling work and payments and requiring them to use their own cars and cellphones on the job, Jennifer O’Mahony reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: The agency is seeking to recoup payments that it says Amazon should have made on behalf of the drivers.

Amazon could not treat workers using its Flex app as self-employed because the e-commerce giant’s Spanish subsidiary “assumes the authority to make all decisions regarding the service, setting the conditions of execution and remuneration, and the circumstances of the day, time and duration” of labor, according to the Madrid labor

Friday’s ruling is the result of a lawsuit brought by Spain’s social security body following a 2019 labor inspection at an Amazon facility.

The agency is seeking to recoup payments that it says Amazon should have made on behalf of the drivers. Amazon has long argued that Flex was an intermediary platform between freelance delivery workers and clients in Spain, rather than a delivery service in its own right.

"We respect the court ruling, but we disagree and will be filing an appeal,” the company said in a statement, adding that it worked with a range of delivery companies.

“Between 2018 and 2021, we also collaborated with some freelancers through the Amazon Flex program, which accounted for a small percentage of packages delivered in Spain,” it added.

The decision is the latest in a series of legal measures in Spain designed to stop e-commerce and delivery app companies from designating workers as self-employed when they have little control over their hours and earnings.

Spain’s socialist government in 2021 passed the “Riders Law,” which classified food delivery riders as employees of the digital platforms they work for.

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