This investigation is interested in the employment conditions of the drivers of the American giant's VTC, a source close to the matter told AFP, confirmed by the Paris prosecutor's office.

Opened in 2015, it "slept" for a long time, according to a close source, before being reactivated in 2020 following a report to the justice of the Urssaf, and entrusted in cosaisine to this body and to the gendarmes of the Central Office fight against illegal work (OCLTI).

Asked, the Urssaf declined to comment.

According to a source familiar with the matter, the investigation, which is in its early stages, covers the period from 2015 to today.

No search has been carried out at this stage, but requisitions for documents, including lists of drivers using the Uber app, have been sent to the company.

OCLTI investigators are still waiting for returns and to be able to study them, according to the source close to the file.

Several "tens" of hearings of Uber drivers are envisaged "to know their condition of employment and recruitment", added this source.

"Gig economy"

"We have not been notified that an investigation by the Paris prosecutor's office was underway," a spokesperson for Uber told AFP.

"The vast majority of drivers want to be independent, it is essential to hear them".

"This is what we denounce from the start, when no one listened to us on the side of the government or the labor inspectorate. It was time, and it is never too late to regulate the Uber platform," said Brahim Ben Ali, secretary general of the national inter-union VTC (INV), told AFP.

The status of self-employed worker, on which the Uber or Deliveroo platforms base their model, is being called into question in a growing number of countries, pushing the giants of the "gig economy" ("economy of small jobs") to offer compromise solutions .

In Great Britain, Uber announced in March that it would grant its more than 70,000 drivers a hybrid status of "salaried workers", which will allow them to benefit from the minimum wage, paid holidays and access to a retirement funds.

A world first for American society.

Demonstration of Uber drivers in Belgium on November 25, 2021, the day when the Court of Appeal prohibited a group of drivers from the American group from exercising Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD AFP

This measure was announced a month after a decision of the British Supreme Court, which had considered that the drivers could be considered as "workers" and thus benefit from social rights.

A similar ruling was handed down on September 13 by a Dutch court.

In France, the Court of Cassation had validated in March 2020 the reclassification into an employment contract of the link between Uber and one of its former drivers, a first in France.

Lawsuit for Deliveroo

"Over the past two years, we have made many changes to give drivers even more control over how they use the app, as well as better social protection," responded a spokesperson for Uber. .

Following numerous legal disputes, the company "has changed its + process. You can be self-employed and work with various platforms now, which makes it more difficult to characterize the relationship of subordination", noted another source close to the file.

If the decisions rendered have for the most part re-qualified the workers of the pinned platforms as employees, others nevertheless go in the opposite direction.

In order to clarify the situation, Brussels is expected to propose an arsenal of measures on Thursday to strengthen the rights of workers on digital platforms, in particular by setting criteria to determine whether or not they should be considered as employees.

The investigation opened on Uber could lead to a first criminal trial in France for the American giant like the meal delivery platform Deliveroo.

The company and three of its former executives will have to answer in March 2022 before the Paris Criminal Court for "hidden work", suspected of having employed between 2015 and 2017 as "independent" deliverers who should have been employees.

tll-gd-sl-cla-tsz-alh / pa / sr

© 2021 AFP