The Labor Inspectorate was right when it sanctioned Cabify and two companies for illegal transfer of workers, but the Generalitat failed in timing and will not be able to collect the half a million euros in fines imposed on the three VTC companies. This was decided by Section 1 of the Social Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia last July in a ruling advanced by El Periódico and to which this newspaper has had access. Fourteen days of excess in the deadlines (maximum of nine months) is what tipped the balance in favor of the three companies. The Generalitat could appeal the decision before the Supreme Court.
The events date back to 2020, when the Labor Inspectorate issued reports for very serious infractions to Maxi Mobility Spain (Cabify) and three service providers (basically rental cars with drivers) to the large VTC license operator in Spain. While Cabify was fined 143,754 and 100,006 euros; JT Hiring was fined 25,000 and 35,000 euros, Proinvertia, 100,006 euros, and López Rubio, another 143,754 euros.
The underlying issue, initiated in an inspection at Barcelona airport, was to trace how Cabify operated and how it relied on other companies to offer a passenger transport service. If Cabify was the one managing the app that connected customers with the service, the other companies were the ones executing the transport, each with its own collective agreement. The existence of that illegal transfer of workers is in no case in doubt and recalls previous rulings that proved that the contracts linking Cabify with its partners were “so detailed that they imply an indirect power of direction over the workers.” The bridge between the two types of employers are two applications provided by Cabify: Cabify, which customers use on their mobile phones, and Cabify Drivers, used by drivers for the entire service provision. Without that transfer, the three providers could not work. But there are other factors that lead to thinking there is an illegal transfer of workers: training courses or the ability to impose disciplinary measures by Cabify. “It has been proven — the ruling states — that the company Cabify organizes the work of the drivers, establishes controls over the quality of their work, gives instructions about how it wants this work to be carried out, and exercises its disciplinary power over them.”
Read more Dolly Parton died after a «brief cancer»
The problem, however, was the deadlines incurred by the Generalitat and denounced by the companies. According to them, who validate their calculations, the sanctionable deadlines must start once the inspection proceedings open at the airport, on March 11, 2020, and close on March 13, 2021, when the infraction report is already prepared, with the pertinent sanctions. Due to covid, which temporarily paralyzed administrative procedures, 78 days should be deducted from that period, so a total of nine months and 14 days would have elapsed. “That is,” the ruling reads, “in principle, the passage of nine months would have occurred and, therefore, the expiration denounced by the three companies.”
The Generalitat’s Legal Service tried before the TSJC to correct a first instance ruling that freed the four companies from paying the sanctions. They argued that the time started to run at the moment the infraction report is issued or on the notification date. Its magistrates have rejected that decision and have condemned the Catalan Administration to pay 2,500 euros of the legal costs of the infringing companies.
Read more Defrost the housing