Glovo does not guarantee that its workers receive at least the minimum wage, let alone fair pay after expenses, nor does it mitigate job risks, provide a social safety net, clear contractual terms, or adequate decision-making procedures. decisions, nor a fair administrative process, does not guarantee freedom of association and expression for workers, does not promote democratic governance, and does not avoid arbitrary terms. …
Glovo does not guarantee that its workers receive at least the minimum wage, let alone fair pay after expenses, nor does it mitigate job risks, provide a social safety net, clear contractual terms, or adequate decision-making procedures. decisions, nor a fair administrative process, does not guarantee freedom of association and expression for workers, does not promote democratic governance, and does not avoid arbitrary terms. Since it fails to adhere to these ten variables, the delivery company receives a zero out of ten in the examination it was subjected to by a group of researchers from the Complutense University of Madrid and which was released on Thursday. It’s the worst possible grade. The analysis also comments on the business conditions of other large platforms operating in Spain, such as Uber and Cabify, which respect only two of the ten variables analyzed. It depicts a bleak panorama regarding working conditions in these companies. Just Eat is the only large platform to gain approval with seven points.
“There are platforms that commit to and provide acceptable working conditions for their employees, such as Just Eat, and others that do not,” sums up lead co-investigator, Arturo Laheira, who shares leadership of the project with fellow Complutense professor Alberto Risco. One of the strengths of the research is that it is based on testing according to international standards, those imposed by the Fairwork project. It is an idea promoted and coordinated by the Internet Institute at the University of Oxford, which consists of evaluating working conditions on platforms through ten specific points. Lahira and Risko carried out this exercise in Spain based on British University standards, supported by funding from the CC OO consortium. They analyzed seven platforms, through interviews with companies and with employees: delivery platforms Just Eat, Glovo and La Pájara; Transportation companies Cabify and Uber; cleaning company MyPoppins; and removal and assembly company TaskRabbit.
La Pájara cooperative obtained the best result of the platforms analyzed, because it satisfies eight of the ten variables analyzed. It is more appropriate to say that it complied, as it closed in January, but remained open while the study was being prepared. It has been a small player in the sector, unlike Just Eat, the other platform with a positive rating. It meets seven of Fairwork’s 10 requirements, including paying compensation at the minimum wage. The study highlights that salary scales come from an agreement with unions, “which simultaneously means recognizing the subordination and subordination of delivery workers in the employment relationship, and recognizing collective bargaining.” Meanwhile, Lahira and Risko explain that many of the company’s delivery drivers work part-time: “Just Eat guarantees salaries for delivery staff that are above the minimum wage, but below an adequate living wage.”
Just Eat has also implemented an occupational risk prevention policy, provides social security coverage to employees and provides them with clear contractual terms. law enforcement racer On Just Eat’s part, the study notes that “working and employment conditions, according to Fairwork’s evaluation criteria, are significantly more secure and protected than those on other platforms.” At the same time, as the company itself usually explains, this is why it has more operating costs than its competitors.
Glovo does not meet any of the study requirements for assigning points. Regarding wages, the analysis finds that Glovo does not pay even the minimum wage: “Evidence collected in our field work shows that the real income received by workers (between €3.4 and €5.3 net (per hour)) is below the minimum wage among professionals.” (Total 7.7 euros in 2022) “One of the main factors in this very low wage is that the company only pays per order, and does not cover the periods when the delivery person waits, even though this is also working time with the regulations in place.
In addition, the study also warns of shortcomings in the safety of delivery workers: “Glovo does not have an adequate occupational risk prevention policy for the majority of its delivery workers. The training received is limited and the platform is not responsible for the condition of the vehicles used for delivery.
Uber and Capify, two out of ten
The other big player in food delivery in Spain is Uber Eats, but it is not part of the study. The authors did not want to limit the diagnosis to birth, and therefore analyzed this group by its carriage activity. Uber doesn’t adhere to this either. It only gets a positive rating regarding fair representation of workers. It’s a failure in terms of pay, because, according to researchers’ estimates, an Uber driver would have to work more than 60 hours a week to earn an income “slightly above minimum wage.” It is also not compatible with the prevention of occupational risks: “The system of fixed and variable salary bonuses promotes very long working days, which reduces rest times and increases the risk of an accident.” The researchers diagnose that this condensation “also encourages risk-taking when driving, which increases the likelihood of being involved in an accident, as well as psychosocial risks.”
It’s a similar analysis to Lahira and Risko’s analysis of Cabify’s working conditions. Although in the Community of Madrid these drivers are subject to an agreement that sets a basic salary of 14,720 euros in 2022, which is slightly higher than the simple minimum income index for that year (14,000), there are factors that undermine these earnings. “The reward system implemented by the platform requires the worker to reach the minimum weekly bill in order to receive his basic salary. The problem we discovered is that the minimum required billing is very high and all the people interviewed claim that they have to work long hours,” the researchers point out. , about 12 hours a day. In interviews with these workers, they also confirmed that “some tasks that should be considered effective working time, such as refueling with gasoline or cleaning the car, are not always paid, as are the times allocated for complying with company instructions or returning.” The car is at the end of the shift.”
The study also looks at working conditions on smaller platforms, cleaning company MyPoppins (which went bankrupt in April) and assembly and transportation company TaskRabbit, which is owned by Ikea. The former, like Glovo, fails to adhere to all variables analyzed, while the latter scores two out of ten.
Negative conclusions
The researchers present a very negative diagnosis of the general panorama: “Despite the progress recorded since the law was passed racer“Working and employment conditions in the platform economy in Spain remain largely precarious, with very modest labor standards.” They cite as an example the fact that the Just Eat program comes off very well, when “it is, in fact, limited to applying current labor legislation, straying slightly from the mandatory minimum standards”. For this reason, Lahira and Risko say, “there is still scope for improving worker protections in the platform economy.” One of the lines they point out is that the law is a protective umbrella racer Must exceed delivery And access to the rest of the platforms, which will happen when the recently adopted new European regulations are transferred.
“Low wages; insufficient or excessive working hours; unpaid working time; insufficient protection against occupational hazards; widespread presence of false self-employment and subcontracting; unilateral changes in working conditions and the presence of abusive clauses in the terms of employment contracts provided; “Unstable recognition of collective representation and collective bargaining rights…many of these problems persist even in those platforms and sectors where the paid nature of the employment relationship is recognized and there is union representation.”
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