<p>On-demand food delivery platform, Glovo, has finally succumbed to pressure to accord full employee status to its food delivery riders as the company has announced that it will now hire its riders. Before now, the Glovo riders, about 15,000 in number, were classified by the company as ‘self-employed’ freelance riders.</p> 
<p>The company uses subcontractors to bring riders to its platform, a system that helps it bypass the requirements of the Labour reforms. However, following years of pressure and threats of lawsuit, Glovo management said in a statement that it has decided to change its employment model “to avoid further legal uncertainties leading to an increase of contingencies.”</p> 
<p>This is coming more than three years after the 2021 Spanish labour reform ordered that riders operating with delivery platforms be granted full employee status. However, since that order, Glovo, owned by a German company, Delivery Hero has continued to operate with most riders operating on a self-employed basis. This would suggest they are individual entrepreneurs.</p> 
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  <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="800" height="459" src="https://technext24.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Yolanda-Diaz-Perez.jpeg" alt="15,000 Glovo food delivery riders to&nbsp;become full employees in Spain with full benefits" class="wp-image-241004">
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   Yolanda Diaz Perez
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<p>However, Spain’s Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz Perez disagrees. Reacting to the delivery company’s decision, the minister took to her X handle to explain how classifying young persons as entrepreneurs simply because they have cellphones and bicycles is wrong.</p> 
<p>“<em>Companies were not used to be told ‘no’. Glovo thought it could act outside the law. No large company is above a law. Democracy wins. A young person with a cell phone in their hand is not an entrepreneur</em>,” Diaz said.</p> 
<h4 id="glovo-riders-could-cost-company-e100m-loss-amid-legal-troubles" class="wp-block-heading">Glovo riders could cost company €100m loss amid legal troubles</h4> 
<p>By granting Glovo riders full employee status, the food delivery company warned that it could lose as much as €100 million in its earnings. The announcement has since seen its shares slump by nearly 10 per cent.&nbsp;</p> 
<p>The food delivery platform also finds itself dealing with a slew of legal actions in Spain, the latest of which is its major competitor Just Eat, announcing in a statement that it had filed a lawsuit against it for unfair competition on Nov. 29. Just Eat is claiming a total 295 million euros worth of damages.</p> 
<p>Similarly, CEO and co-founder, Oscar Pierre is due in court this week over alleged breaches and violations of gig workers law.</p> 
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  <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1200" height="900" src="https://technext24.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/f.elconfidencial.com_original_6d4_5c4_7c1_6d45c47c12275585750db49ddc30401e.jpg" alt="This is how Glovo's Oscar Pierre plans to build its Nigerian business" class="wp-image-193600">
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   Glovo CEO, Oscar Pierre
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<p>Between 2022 and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/spain-fines-delivery-heros-glovo-further-62-mln-over-hiring-source-2023-01-24/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023</a>, Spain had slammed the company with a hefty fine for not formally hiring riders. Before these, the company had faced multiple fines for labour infractions even pre-dating the 2021 Riders Law.</p> 
<p>The company said it had appealed the fines imposed by the labour ministry in court and has won some of the cases, a spokesperson for Glovo told Reuters.</p> 
<p>Aside from Europe, The company also finds itself battling with regulatory matters as well. Technext<a href="https://technext24.com/2024/04/26/food-delivery-companies-kenya-glovo/"> reported that in Kenya, Glovo, alongside Uber Eats, was ordered to open offices in the country</a> by the Kenyan competition watchdog, the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK).</p> 
<p>The authority said this became necessary following a survey which revealed that the resolution of complaints by these companies, mostly operated from abroad, is slow and often delayed. This delay, according to the authority, was blamed largely on the absence of physical offices in the country where customers can walk in, make their complaints and get prompt resolutions.</p> 
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 <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="800" height="449" src="https://technext24.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Glovo-and-Uber-Eats.png" alt="Kenya orders Glovo and Uber Eats to open physical offices to handle customer complaints" class="wp-image-230654">
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<p>However, in Africa where the space in which food delivery platforms operate remains largely unregulated, not much is been said about the employment status of Glovo riders. It is probably even worse as a country like Kenya is setting up a framework for self-regulation. Kenya’s competition watchdog said this would be necessary, especially in the absence of a legal framework governing the operations of these online food and grocery delivery companies in the country.</p>

15,000 Glovo food delivery riders to become full employees in Spain with full benefits

Technext.ng

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