The SAC dismissed Rohlík.cz’s cassation complaint, the fine for the shvarcsystem remains valid

The Supreme Administrative Court has now found in favour of the Labour Inspectorate and the Municipal Court in Prague, which has repeatedly upheld the fine. Previously, the Supreme Administrative Court had once overturned the decision of the Municipal Court and returned the case to it with instructions to deal in more detail with the objections of Velká Pecka and to carefully assess the fulfilment of the characteristics of dependent work.

After the reconsideration, the Municipal Court again concluded that all the elements of dependent work were fulfilled, and the current verdict of the SAC confirmed this legal assessment – formally, the “entrepreneurial” couriers were in fact employees, and their use outside the employment relationship constituted illegal work under the Employment Act.

The fine itself was based on the fact that Velká Pecka had concluded framework contracts with couriers for the transport of goods, even though those couriers were delivering orders for it from a central warehouse, at times and on a schedule determined by the company, according to instructions given via an app and using facilities that a typical ‘independent’ contractor would find difficult to arrange.

The Labour Inspectorate and the courts have uniformly seen this as a shvarcsystem – a situation where dependent work is disguised as an I.T.O. business in order to save on levies and other employer obligations. The case is thus another warning for delivery and platform services: it is not what is written in the contract that matters, but how the cooperation actually works.