Chilean Court recognises Labour Relationship between Delivery App and Deliverer

On 5 October 2020, the Labor Court of Concepción-Chile- ruled in favor of a claimant worker who was working as a deliverer at the food delivery app “PedidosYa”. The sentence established the existence of an employment relationship between the worker and the delivery Company which would imply, among other things, that at the time of his dismissal the worker would be entitled to the payment of severance.

On this matter, the sentence indicates that in order to determine whether a labor relationship exists, the principle of the primacy of reality must prevail, regardless of the qualification that the parties give to the relationship.  It states that in this case, there would be a relationship of subordination and dependency since the worker is subject to orders and instructions from the company, is supervised in his work and is permanently rated.

For the group of Chilean deliverers, this sentence is historic, since it makes clear that the deliverers are not independent workers. They emphasize that for Chile as well as for Latin America this is a ruling that could influence all distributors of applications protecting their lives and work. However, not all is said, since the food delivery company will appeal the sentence of first instance as it considers it unclear.