Germany: Bavaria Labor Tribunal rules that online platform workers are not employees

On 04 December, the Land of Bavaria’s Labor Tribunal in Munich delivered one of the first rulings on the legal status of online platform workers and deemed them not to hold employee worker status. The case was referred to the tribunal on appeal by a male, who had been photographing publicity pieces for an online platform over a period of two years. Since this activity had been his primary source of income, the worker considered his independent worker status to be incorrect and he demanded a written signed employment contract. The Bavaria Labor Tribunal rejected his case. Disappointed, the IG Metall trade union that gave the complainant legal assistance said it would wait to review the grounds for the tribunal’s decision before deciding whether or not to take the case to the Federal Labor Tribunal.