Date
28 May 2024

Tag

Active

Country
Hungary Hungary
Geographical scope
National
Type
  • Type

    Employment contract

    Legal

Description

The Hungarian Supreme Court has ruled on the employment status of platform workers for the first time, concluding that platform workers are self-employed.

The decision is based on the case of an individual worker and a platform. Specifically, the platform worker had worked for the platform from October 2019 until January 2020. After the worker got into an accident in December of 2019 and continued to experience issues with their vehicle, the platform proposed to terminate the work of the plaintiff due to low activity, which both parties agreed to. The worker then turned to the labour court, requesting it to declare the existence of an open-ended employment relationship between the plaintiff and the platform in the time period indicated above. If the labour court would have ruled in favour of the worker, it would offer them enhanced rights to health care and pensions based on the employer's social security and tax contributions.

The Hungarian Supreme Court was involved because one court found the platform worker to be self-employed, while a second court ruled that there was an employment relationship. The Supreme Court based its decision on the lack of mutual obligations between the worker and the platform, as well as on the lack of fixed working hours which do not oblige the platform to employ the worker. The court also found a lack of a hierarchical working relationship and missing strict subordination to be a decisive factor. The court also ruled that the worker was not economically dependent on the platform.


Additional metadata

Keywords
social protection, employment status
Actors
Individual worker, Court
Sector
Transportation and storage

Sources

Citation

Eurofound (2024), Supreme Court rules platform worker is self-employed (Court ruling), Record number 4434, Platform Economy Database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/platformeconomydb/supreme-court-rules-platform-worker-is-selfemployed-110183.