Amsterdam Court Rules Gig Workers May Be Owed Back Pay

Thousands of people who picked up shifts through a popular Dutch work app just got a shot at reclaiming benefits they should have had all along.

An Amsterdam appeals court ruled Tuesday that Temper, a platform connecting workers to short shifts in restaurants, shops and warehouses, is legally a temp agency. That means the people working through it were employees, not freelancers, and may be entitled to holiday pay, sick leave, pension contributions and other benefits they never received.

The decision overturned a 2024 ruling that had sided with the company. Trade unions FNV and CNV, who brought the case in 2020, called it a "wonderful victory" for workers wrongly classified as self-employed.

Temper had branded its workers as "FreeFlexers" running their own businesses. But the court found the company sets terms, processes payments and exercises employer-level control, just like the Supreme Court found in a 2023 case against Deliveroo.

Niels van der Neut, an employment law lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, said the outcome was predictable. Temper workers do regular, non-specialist jobs for low hourly rates and carry little business risk, he explained. Those are clear signs of employment, not entrepreneurship.

The court also ordered Temper to repay a one euro per hour service fee it charged workers until 2019. For people who worked hundreds of shifts, that alone could add up to real money.

Nothing changes immediately, though. The ruling isn't enforceable yet, and Temper says it's considering an appeal to the Supreme Court. The company called the decision surprising and said it ignored the freedom valued by tens of thousands of people using the platform to earn extra income.

The Ripple Effect

This case is part of a bigger shift happening across the Netherlands. Tax authorities ramped up enforcement against fake self-employment last year, targeting platforms that misclassify workers to avoid providing benefits and protections.

Another cleaning platform, Helpling, faced a similar ruling before going bankrupt. The message to gig economy companies is getting clearer: treating employees as freelancers to cut costs won't fly in Dutch courts anymore.

For workers in the gig economy, this ruling offers more than potential back pay. It validates what many have argued for years: that app-based shift work is still employment, deserving the same protections as any other job.