For the principal, i.e. the employing company, freelance contracts offer many advantages at first sight. There is no legal dismissal protection for the freelancer as he or she is not part of the operating unit in terms of employment law. The freelancer has no entitlement to paid sick leave or to paid holiday or vacation. The maternity protection law and other regulations which protect employees are not applicable to freelancers, neither are collective agreements or in-house company practices. In addition to these advantages regarding employment law, the principal saves the expensive contributions to social security and is entitled to the VAT pre-tax deduction.
These advantages for the principal are not favourable to the government, which, in view of the precarious financial situation of the social security system, strives to obtain contributions by as many people as possible. The principals, of course, are interested in saving these contributions and working as economically as possible. Besides, working with freelancers offers the advantage that the principal can react flexibly to production points because the law of dismissal protection is not applicable. Examination of a freelancer’s actual independence for questions of social security is exclusively incumbent on the social security administration, and the requirements to satisfy the conditions to be classed as a freelancer are quite stringent.
Most legal judgments go back to the concept of the employee. The problems of determining whether someone is a freelancer or an employee are not confined to employment law. There are also problems in tax law and social security law. This means that three different courts deal with the topic of sham freelance. Although every court makes its own judgment, the jurisdiction of the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht) on an employee’s status is the basis for all courts. In particular cases, there are different judgments possible, because each court pursues its own goals and their specific characteristics can require another verdict.
Freelancing does not constitute employment. The contracting parties want to avoid this. Unlike the employer-employee relationship, freelance is an independent business activity on a service or work contract basis. A written agreement should always be concluded. However, a freelance contract does not prevent the courts from considering it to be an employer-employee relationship that is liable to the social security system. It does not depend on the nature of the contract, but on the actual execution of the contractual relationship.
The courts will proceed on the assumption of an employer-employee relationship, if the freelancer is personally and financially dependent on the contract, as financial dependence can at least serve as an indicator. Whether the freelancer is integrated into an organization would also be of central relevance.
