Delivery drivers for Domino’s Pizza should be treated as employees and not contractors, the Irish Supreme Court ruled in a decision that has important implications for workers in the gig economy, reports The Irish Times.  The case concerned delivery drivers engaged under contracts in 2010 and 2011 by Karshan (Midlands) Ltd, trading as Domino’s Pizza. The drivers argued they were employees for tax purposes and Karshan said they were independent contractors under ‘contracts for service’.

Karshan appealed a 2018 decision of a Tax Appeals Commissioner that the delivery drivers should be treated as PAYE workers. The High Court rejected that appeal, but the Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 majority, overturned that decision. The revenue commissioners sought and were granted a further appeal to the Supreme Court. In a unanimous decision on 20 October, a seven-judge Supreme Court overturned the Court of Appeal decision.

Justice Brian Murray said central to the appeal was whether a requirement that the employer and worker owe each other certain ‘mutual obligations’ was necessary to the establishment of the employment relationship. Karshan’s ‘theory of mutuality of obligation’ was that mutual commitments had to present some type of continuity and to have a forward-looking element. It also argued there had to be an obligation on the part of the employer to provide work and there had to be an obligation on the part of the employee to perform work. Justice Murray said there was no such requirement in Irish law.