Platform workers in Scandinavia: employee or consultant?

The primary question before Oslo District Court was whether the plaintiffs, who had entered into contracts as delivery couriers with Wolt, should be classified as employees under the Norwegian Working Environment Act, or whether they operated as independent contractors. 

Oslo District Court concluded that the Wolt workers were to be considered employees. The court placed decisive emphasis on the significant control and supervision exercised by Wolt over the couriers. The court noted that Wolt's platform dictates the couriers' working conditions and remuneration, thus limiting their autonomy. The couriers have little influence over how their tasks are performed once accepted, and they lack the ability to negotiate their terms and conditions. The court also highlighted the couriers' need for protection due to the demanding and potentially hazardous nature of their work, which includes physical exertion and exposure to risks. As the Wolt couriers were to be classified as employees, they were also entitled to employment benefits such as overtime pay, holiday pay, and participation in the company's pension scheme going forward, as well as backpay of such. 

It is worth noting that the District Court's decision included a dissenting opinion. As the judgment has been appealed, it remains to be seen whether the Court of Appeal will side with the majority or the minority opinion; the date for the appeal hearing has yet to be set.

Wolt workers and similar platform workers have also received attention in the rest of Scandinavia:

• In Sweden, the Administrative Court of Appeal in Gothenburg issued a judgment on 29 November 2024, dividing couriers into self-employed couriers and couriers temporarily assigned from a staffing agency. The Court of Appeal found that Wolt AB was deemed to have work environment responsibilities according to the Swedish Work Environment Act for both groups of couriers. However, only the self-employed couriers were deemed employees of Wolt AB. Please see our article on the judgment here. Wolt AB has appealed the judgment to the Supreme Administrative Court, which will decide whether to grant leave to appeal by June 2025.
   
• In Denmark, there are ongoing discussions about whether platform workers, such as Wolt couriers, should be considered employees rather than self-employed. The Danish Tax Council issued a ruling in 2022 confirming that Wolt couriers should be considered employees from a tax perspective. Since then, Wolt has changed its model to withhold taxes from couriers' earnings, although it maintains that couriers are only employed from a tax perspective. The Danish courts have not yet assessed the matter from either a tax or employment law perspective.
   

Both Sweden and Denmark are required to implement the Platform Work Directive (EU) 2024/2831, which was adopted by the Council of the European Union on 14 October 2024. The Directive must be implemented in the member states by 2 December 2026. The purpose of the Platform Work Directive is to ensure that persons performing platform work are entitled to equal working conditions and a work environment as other workers in the labour market and requires member states to apply a legal presumption when determining employment status. The contractual relationship shall be presumed to be an employment relationship if there is direction and control from the digital labour platform. What constitutes direction and control shall be determined by national law, collective agreements, practices in member states, and court jurisprudence. The directive also includes provisions concerning algorithm management and protection against surveillance, including increasing transparency in the use of algorithms. It is currently being assessed whether the directive is also relevant for Norway and the other EEA countries.