Justice has condemned the Clintu platform for employing 505 cleaning workers as false self-employed. According to a ruling from Barcelona commercial court number 15, this technology company has operated illegally between 2014 and 2019, using a system that has allowed it to save on the costs of hiring these workers as employees.
For all this, justice has sentenced the Barcelona company to pay 1.29 million euros for unpaid Social Security contributions.
The court considers that the work carried out by these workers was not that of a commercial relationship, but rather a labor one. Clintu connects households with cleaning workers. Apparently, he acts as a digital intermediary but in reality, the court maintains, this Barcelona company has control over the organization of his work. She manages the adjudication and provision of services, suggests a price at the time of payment (from 9 to 25 euros per hour) and also limits the hours of provision of the service from eight in the morning to ten at night.
It is the first time that the Catalan justice system has dealt with a macro-trial against domestic workers who work through digital platforms. The sentence is not final and the company can appeal. The case is similar to the one that affects thousands of platform riders, such as Glovo, Deliveroo or Uber Eats, who have also been convicted on several occasions for using delivery drivers as false freelancers.
