What is promised is debt, as is often said. The Ministry of Labor warned Glovo – and later Uber Eats – for skipping the precepts of known as Rider’s Law. Now, and according to the Ministry led by Yolanda Díaz, Glovo has been fined 79 million euros. It also announces the regularization of the 10,600 workers who, in the eyes of the inspection, they remain as false self-employed. Most of them in Barcelona, followed by Madrid and Valencia. In fact, only the employees of dark store from Barcelona achieved an indefinite contract. All after a long union activity.
“We are facing an authentic act of false self-employment and the weight of the law is going to fall on this company, as it has already fallen with the Inspection,” Díaz explained in statements to Cadena SER. “The weight of the Law will fall on this company”, has nuanced From Glovo they point out to Hipertextual that this announcement corresponds to the investigation period of May 2021, prior to the Rider Law. They also add that it is an inspection report, not a final judgment.
It was something that, in any case, was on the Minister’s agenda. Especially since Uber Eats joined a war started by Glovo more than a year ago. In 2021, Work premiered the Rider Law. Not without certain problems on all sides that, despite everything, were not completely satisfied with the new text that came to regulate the activity of platform distributors.
All the companies, with the exception of Glovo, opted for the next path. It was not what the Rider Law was looking for, but it did allow them to avoid the obligation to hire all their delivery men on staff. Soon, subcontractors were the maximum in the rider world. Also a problem and a hole of labor rights. Precisely the opposite that the Minister of Labor was looking for.
However, it was just a month ago when Uber Eats announced something that had been discussed for a long time. When would you opt for the Glovo model and continue with the self-employed system that had been working since its inception? This summer, and with a forecast to be released in the fall, the maximum was known. It was, above all, a paradigm shift at least at the public level. In the eyes of the world, Glovo and Uber Eats maintained a public war for the different ways of seeing, and putting into practice, the Rider Law.
In fact, Glovo announced its autonomous model – with price selection by the rider to circumvent the regulations – days after Díaz’s statement. Uber waited almost a year. It was when the North American company took a step forward that the Ministry of Labor announced imminent measures. for now, there is no news of your Uber Eats will have another Labor Inspection. The company, in fact, does not want to talk about the issue that has affected its rival.
What is certain is that, in the short term, the rider and delivery world will continue to occupy a long list of headlines.