Glovo to hire its workers. Cartoon of 08/12/2024 in CTXT
Translation of the cartoon: "I have decided to sacrifice the riders' 'freedom' to try to save my own".
Oscar Pierre, CEO and co-founder of Glovo with Sacha Michaud, declared before the judge that his announcement (a day before he was charged with an offence against workers) that he will hire his delivery drivers in Spain does not seek to protect the company, and himself, in court, but is a coincidence. Something that absolutely nobody believes.
He said the change, which involves registering some 15,000 delivery drivers as employees, is intended to avoid legal disputes with courts and the Labour Inspectorate and to maintain "social peace". That's nothing with. On top of that, he wants to be thanked for avoiding a war. Be that as it may, the guy is still defending the legality of his previous operating model.
The ongoing criminal proceedings, prompted by a complaint from the Public Prosecutor's Office, accuse Glovo of violating labour rights by hiring "false freelancers". It is being investigated whether the company continued to use this model after it was declared illegal by the Supreme Court in 2020. The prosecution argues that this practice harms and nullifies workers' rights, which is why Pierre was summoned for investigation. He faces a possible conviction for an offence punishable by up to six years in prison.
The criminal proceedings are currently in the pre-trial phase, which means that the judge has yet to assess whether the complaint filed by the prosecution against Glovo has sufficient grounds to lead to a trial. At this stage, more people still have to appear before the judge. In similar cases, it is common for labour inspectors to be summoned to detail the requests made to Glovo in recent years.
A handsome conviction would be nice because it would completely change the shitty scenario created by these types of companies, but it is not also likely, that at some point in the process, there will be talks to reach some kind of settlement to avoid a trial.
These elements are very clear that they do not want to get off the donkey, no matter how many diversionary manoeuvres they do. To give you an idea of what kind of people these people are, Glovo left the CEOE because the employers' association accepted that Labour would establish by law that the delivery drivers would become salaried employees.
Look up and read interviews with the Pierre's "entrepreneur", in none of which he gives his arm and insists that his "riders" are very happy and free. The company has accumulated a good number of convictions, fines of 235 million euros and a debt of 267 million euros to social security.
Glovo has already been forced to regularise tens of thousands of delivery drivers, who were registered as employees by the labour authority. Since 2014, the Labour Inspectorate identified and officially registered 40,889 delivery drivers who were working as false self-employed for Glovo.
The Social Security is now demanding that Glovo pay 410,578 euros in VAT and personal income tax.
Sacha Michaud, co-founder of Glovo, in an interview (2019) in El Mundo said this which sums up his crappy mission statement perfectly:
The glover profile is looking for flexibility and we have to give it to them, especially in a country with the highest level of unemployment in Europe. We believe that the current model is the ideal one, but with improved social benefits for riders.
- Why don't they improve them?
- Because our hands are tied. If I give more benefits to the fleet, it would hurt them because it would be considered an employment relationship.
If you are looking for a better and more complete summary of the issue, you can find it in this thread by Marina Olmo.
