Sea serpent, unattainable goal or near result? The debate on the working conditions of hybrid bikes never ceases to come back to the fore. This Monday, it is the start-up Jump which offers the status of salaried entrepreneur in a cooperative, a French legal status, to the 55,000 VTC drivers in France.
“For the sum of 79 euros per month (fixed costs), a VTC driver will now be able to obtain an entrepreneur-employee contract within the Jump cooperative, with the opportunity to do away with the administrative tasks related to the status of self-employed and to benefit from all the social protection granted to employees: unemployment contributions, retirement, mutual insurance, provident insurance, sick leave, paternity and maternity leave, etc., indicates the start-up in a press release.
A quest to improve conditions that began many years ago: demonstrations by drivers from 2016, procedures from 2017… The fight is getting organised. “300 files are in progress”, says Sayah Baaroun, general secretary of the SCP VTC union, the first union of VTC drivers. In a judgment of March 4, 2020, the Court of Cassation reclassified the self-employed status of an Uber driver as an employment contract, recalls Valery Duez-Ruff, lawyer specializing in working conditions: “The rule is clear, the status independent of the Uber driver is fictitious since it does not constitute its own clientele, does not set its rates and does not choose its journeys, there is therefore a relationship of subordination. However, disqualification is not automatic and it is up to each driver to request it. »
Employees, for what?
Contacted by 20 Minutes, Uber France recalls that other procedures have not made it possible to define any VTC employee as an employee. This is particularly the case of another judgment of the Court of Cassation, of April 13, 2022, concerning a driver “Le Cab”. The Court considered that it did not have sufficient elements to conclude that there was a relationship of subordination.
The status of employee is in any case not particularly envied, according to Denis Jacquet, president of the Observatory of uberization. Because certainly, the wage labor offers rights, in particular a minimum wage, “but the delivery men or the drivers know very well that as employees, they would remain with the minimum payment. The wage would make them precarious all their life, without possibility of evolution » Without the wage, there is therefore the risk of earning less than the minimum wage, but also the lure of earning more. “A beautician earns four times more on average when she is not employed”, illustrates Denis Jacquet.
In 2019, Uber published the salaries of its employees in France to silence critics: 1,617 euros net on average per month for 45.3 hours per week, the average working time of a self-employed person. A study by the Harris Institute in November 2021* showed that 80% of Uber drivers wanted to be self-employed in the future, compared to 18% as employees (and 2% as temporary workers). More than half of the drivers surveyed said they had chosen to become drivers with Uber to be able to work when they wanted (57%) and to be able to be their own boss (55%). Desires opposed to wage labor. According to a Harvard Business School study, for freelancers, losing flexibility is equivalent to losing 17% of their income.
But then a VTC, what is it in the state? Short course in law by Valérie Duez-Ruff: “A VTC driver comes under the artisanal sector and must as such be registered in the directory of trades. He can then choose between two statuses: exercise in the form of a sole proprietorship, for example as a microentrepreneur, or in the form of a company. This non-salaried status is not without flaws: “The VTC must fulfill his professional and health expenses. Employees have more social rights, such as occupational health, but work under a relationship of subordination. »
Inevitable changes?
From there to be satisfied with the current status quo? Absolutely not. “What we want is the choice, pleads Sayah Baaroun. Either the platforms only connect, but they are not the ones who decide on the services and prices, or they decide everything, but then we are employees”.
A breakthrough that calls for others, according to the lawyer: “It would be possible to further improve workers’ rights. For example, VTC platforms could provide a guaranteed minimum rate or more social rights. “Same assurance at Sayah Baaroun, for whom the result is close: “It takes time because the platforms do everything necessary to slow down the legal procedures. But we’ll get there, I’m sure. »
Much more than the wage earner, it is therefore better protection that is required, attests Denis Jacquet: “Uberized professions want better conditions. They will eventually have them, because society, in the digital age, can no longer do without its services. People have gotten used to being delivered to their homes, to returning by Uber, to having services come to their homes… From the moment a service has become essential, the conditions for working there are improved. »