The defunct meal delivery company Take Eat Easy and its ex-CEO Adrien Roose will be tried on October 21 before the Paris Criminal Court for “hidden work“, AFP learned Thursday from a source familiar with the matter. More than a hundred former bicycle couriers had filed a complaint in April 2018 in Paris for illegal work and concealed work. Registered at the time as autoentrepreneurs, they had simultaneously initiated proceedings before the industrial tribunal to have a wage-earning link with the company recognized. More than a hundred of them won, according to their lawyer Kevin Mention.
Read alsoTake Eat Easy targeted by a criminal complaint
“We hope that the company and its leader will indeed be judged for the concealed work committed with regard to all of the victim couriers and not only those heard by the investigators, hoping that we are not deviate from the procedure for budgetary or political reasons“, reacted Me Mention, specialized in these files.
“We were 3,000 to deliver for them, 3,000 under the same conditions. We will never all be able to come and testify but we have all been victims of the same abuse“, testified one of these ex-couriers, “Daniel“, in statements sent to AFP by Me Mention. “It’s not just a question of money: what we suffered, how we were treated, we all want to be able to be recognized as victims in criminal proceedings, even if it’s for a symbolic 1 euro in damages ( …). 6 years later, I still have trouble cashing in“, added this ex-courier.
A company closed since 2016
Contacted by AFP since Tuesday via his new company, Cowboy, a connected bicycle start-up, Adrien Roose did not follow up. At the end of 2018, in an unprecedented decision, the Court of Cassation had established a relationship of subordination between the defunct delivery company and one of its bicycle couriers.
Read alsoThe couriers of Take Eat Easy will play their last card with the prud’hommes
The Belgian company, created in 2013, had grown and claimed up to 350,000 customers as well as a presence in 20 European cities, including Brussels, Paris, Bordeaux, Rennes, Lyon, Lille, Nantes, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Berlin , Madrid and London. In 2015, the start-up had raised 16 million euros, before announcing in July 2016 its placement in receivership, failing to close a third fundraiser. It had been judicially liquidated in August of the same year. The Deliveroo meal delivery platform and three of its ex-leaders are also summoned to appear from March 8 to 16 in Paris for “hidden work“.