Spain's Supreme Court rules food delivery riders are employees, not freelancers

Authored by thestar.com.my and submitted by Tremor-Christ

MADRID: Spain's Supreme Court ruled on Sept 23 that riders for Barcelona-based food delivery app Glovo were employees, not freelancers, in a case that could clear the way for so-called gig economy workers to demand formal labour contracts and benefits.

The ruling by the country's top court follows two previous cases heard in regional courts, one involving Glovo and the other its rival Deliveroo.

"... fixes the conditions for the provision of its services, and owns the assets essential to carrying out its services," the court said in a statement.

"It uses deliverers who... fulfil their roles within the employer's professional organisation."

Glovo had argued it was merely an intermediary between restaurants and delivery riders, who were self-employed.

In recent years, some workers hired to deliver goods via apps like Glovo have been demanding recognition as salaried staff and petitioning for the corresponding rights, such as sick leave and paid holidays.

Glovo said in a statement it respected the court's ruling, but expected the government and the European Union to set up a regulatory framework.

"Glovo firmly believes this regulation must be promoted based on dialogue between all actors involved," the statement said. – Reuters

Anustart15 on September 28th, 2020 at 14:54 UTC »

At this point it seems like there should just be a new category of worker for gig economy jobs. They don't seem to fit very well into either the employee or the contractor definition. Trying to force them into either one has only been causing problems.

AustrianMichael on September 28th, 2020 at 14:14 UTC »

Good.

In German, we‘ve already got a word that describes these kinda jobs: „Scheinselbständigkeit“, which means something like pretense freelancers.

If their whole business model isn’t viable without cheap labor from desperate youth and migrants then they should rework their whole business model instead of exploiting their „employees“.

NeoGrotesk on September 28th, 2020 at 13:10 UTC »

Fucking finally. I am tired to see parasitic companies like Uber and Glovo making money off people while giving nothing back.