Cagliari, taxi drivers win the racing war with the coop
Thirteen expelled because they were judged "not very productive". But they were right. Meanwhile, for months, it was almost impossible to book a ride in the city
In Cagliari you call a taxi and often you can't find it. Among the causes there was (also) a judicial battle between the Radiotaxi Quattro Mori cooperative and a group of members, drivers of white cars who had been kicked out: in October the board of directors kicked them out because they were considered defaulting on the alleged obligations imposed by the membership in the coop.
A provision challenged by eleven applicants, who won: the Court of Cagliari, judge Nicola Caschili, annulled the exclusion, demolishing the decision of the board of directors point by point. The ordinance seems to anticipate the contents of a future decision on the merits.
It works like this. Taxi drivers are workers who act individually. But they have come together in a cooperative to have guaranteed mutual services, the computerized management of a switchboard that handles customer calls, a workshop or any replacement cars. In return, by statute, they are obliged to pay a fee of 170 euros per month into the company's coffers, and are required "to comply with the rules of conduct identified in the context of internal regulations, while remaining free to organize their business with the methods and to the extent deemed appropriate".
In August, however, the top management of the coop introduced "performance standards" with reference to the number of journeys to be made. The reason? "The conduct of some less available members (a minority, but still high because equal to 20 members), who were accused of having made an absolutely inadequate number of journeys in the month of July (less than 130 per month) for the number of requests received by the cooperative from users, thus causing serious damage to the same and to the service rendered Therefore "at least 5 journeys per day and in any case not less than 130 per month" were required.
The provision arrived in October: 13 (out of just over 70) were accused of having refused too many calls and were excluded.
The appeal through the lawyer Giuseppe Macciotta was immediate. The coop's decision was contested point by point. And after the suspension of the business court, the decision of the Court of Cagliari also arrived, signed by judge Nicola Caschili.
In a nutshell, according to the verdict, taxi drivers have no obligations other than paying the fee. Also, if they don't answer the calls, it's their problem, because they don't make money. However, they can bring customers on board at lay-bys or through direct contacts. And "if the damage complained of by the cooperative is that of the inability to adequately ensure transport services to users", concludes the judge, "the reduction in the number of members would determine an even lower capacity of the cooperative to cope with it". Exclusion canceled, the taxi drivers were right.
