The High Court decision distinguishing contractors and employees has been welcomed by food delivery platform Deliveroo.Credit:Trevor Collens
In a judgment on Wednesday,the High Court found the written agreement between the drivers as independent contractors to the company trumped the “impression”,as the Federal Court described it,of the working relationship that began in 1977 and ended in 2017.
“The respondents were not employed by the company. They were members of partnerships which carried on the business of providing delivery services to the company,” Chief Justice Susan Kiefel,Justice Patrick Keane and Justice James Edelman found jointly.
The men launched legal proceedings claiming they were owed years of entitlements owed to employees,including superannuation and long service leave.
The men had been employees of the company until 1985,when they were asked to become contractors and buy their own trucks,or risk not receiving future work. The court said due to this arrangement,it was difficult to doubt the drivers “were thereafter no longer employees of the company”.
At various times the companies asked the drivers to install tarpaulins bearing the company logo on the trucks,as well as wear branded clothing.
The Federal Court said the pair “devoted” their working lives to transporting goods for the company,and the expectation of wearing its insignia would lead stakeholders to identify them as staff,“which may have limited the opportunity for the respondents to obtain work from others”.
But the High Court found those so-called expectations did not alter the contractual rights and obligations that characterised the relationship between the partnerships and the company.