The manager of a forwarding company from Germany’s Lower Saxony district has been handed an 8 months suspended prison sentence; his company was found to have improperly hired full-time drivers on a self-employed basis.
Officers from the national insurance authorities in Osnabrück determined that the convicted person had employed drivers as self-employed subcontractors between 2010 and 2015 in order to save on social security contributions.
The drivers worked full time and did not do work for other parties, therefore their self-employment was determined to be bogus.
According to the German authorities, the company saved around 117,000 euros by not employing their drivers under proper work contracts.
The decision of the court is final, but provided that the convicted freight forwarder avoided future misdemeanors within the next 2 years, he shall avoid jail time. According to reports in the Polish media, the company changed their employment practises in 2015 and no longer push their drivers into self employment.
Photo credit: Oxfordian Kissuth / Wikimedia Commons (edited image is for illustration purposes only)
