Denmark allows Wolt couriers to register as employees for EU residence

The adjustment in practice, announced by the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) in a statement on its website, means that Wolt couriers will now be considered by SIRI as employees of the company in the context of their registration as residents of Denmark under EU regulations.

Previously, Wolt couriers were considered to be self-employed or were granted residency in Denmark under EU rules via meeting the “sufficient funds” criteria, meaning they needed to document that they have enough money in a bank account to support their stay in Denmark.

The company itself considers the delivery drivers to be "courier partners" and not formal employees.

The change should make it easier for Wolt riders with EU passports to move to Denmark because their work with the company will be sufficient for them to be granted a Danish residency document under EU regulations.

“Wolt is a platform company where the couriers themselves decide how much and when they want to work. Until now, SIRI has registered Wolt courier partners either as self-employed persons or as persons with sufficient funds. This is partly due to SIRI’s assessment that Wolt was not the couriers’ employer,” SIRI said in the statement.

“Now, SIRI assesses that Wolt in connection with evalution of residence under the EU regulations as a rule shall be considered as employer for the couriers, and the couriers can thus be considered as workers if the other conditions for obtaining status as a worker are fulfilled,” it added.

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Wolt couriers who want to register for a Danish residence document can do so by providing documentation of their courier partner agreement with Wolt; an evidence of work for at least three months in the form of invoices or paychecks. The documented work should be of a “certain scale”, SIRI states.

Any Wolt courier who is already registered under the sufficient funds rule can re-register as a worker by submitting SIRI’s application form along with the documentation mentioned above.

Wolt courier partners already registered as self-employed on their Danish residence document need not reapply because they are already encompassed by the relevant section of the EU Residence Order for workers, SIRI notes in the statement.

Although several companies operate takeaway courier services in Denmark, the change in practice at SIRI only affects courier partners for Wolt and not other companies.

This is because the status of workers under EU rules depends “on the specific structure of the platform company in question”, SIRI said in the statement. The character and scope of the work being executed” are also taken into account.

“If Wolt changes its structure, this can also affect the Wolt courier partners’ future status as workers,” SIRI noted.

The change of practice by SIRI is not the first time a Danish authority has concluded Wolt couriers have an employer-employee relationship with the company, which considers them not as staff but as “courier partners”.

A ruling earlier this year by Denmark’s occupational injury authority, Arbejdsmarkedets Erhvervssikring (AES), found that Wolt was obliged to pay compensation to delivery drivers if they were injured while working.

The ruling means AES views Wolt drivers as employees of the company in the sense that they are covered by Denmark’s regular laws on occupational injuries. 

But Wolt has appealed against the ruling, disputing the assertion that its relationship with its drivers is the same as that between employer and employee.