BARCELONA—Gig-economy companies in Europe, under pressure over employment rights, are looking to strike labor agreements that give workers some benefits but stop short of making them employees.
Uber Technologies Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.-backed Deliveroo are among a number of food-delivery businesses seeking to secure deals with workers and unions in the hope of averting legislation that could force them to treat delivery drivers as employees, potentially upending their business models.
The effort follows several legal judgements across Europe challenging the companies’ view that drivers and couriers are independent contractors.
In the U.K., Uber is appealing to the Supreme Court to overturn an earlier decision that drivers using its app effectively work for the company, while Swiss courts have forced Uber Eats to stop using independent contractors in the Geneva area. Instead it has started using third-party employees, a first for the company.
Gig-economy companies say reclassifying workers as employees would add to costs, reduce workers’ flexibility and result in lost jobs. Following the Geneva move, Uber said only 300 couriers were given contracts, costing 1,000 others their jobs.
