Spain to grant gig delivery workers employee rights

Spain is set to become the first EU country to amend its laws to give some gig economy workers employee rights such as collective bargaining, a move that follows landmark rulings in Europe against the model used by platforms such as Uber.

The country’s Socialist-led government on Thursday said it would introduce a decree to give employee status to gig delivery workers in line with a court ruling last year. The legislation would also give such workers access to information about the algorithms affecting their work.

“We will be the first country in the EU to legislate on this issue in such an ambitious way,” said Yolanda Díaz, Spain’s labour minister, adding that such workers “will be employees with all the corresponding rights . . . and the social protection that they do not have now . . . This will change many people’s lives.”

She said the legislation’s provisions would prevent “algorithmic penalties that punish people based on a biased evaluation of their performance or for carrying out a strike”.

But Glovo, the Barcelona-based delivery app, accused the government of “putting up barriers and creating additional difficulties for the services that have acted as a life support system” to the country’s struggling retailers during the pandemic.

“Regulation is necessary but it has to take into account and consider the views of both the platforms and the workers, none of whom have been approached to be a part of the solution,” said Sacha Michaud, the platform’s co-founder, as he contrasted Spain’s “rather radical” position with those of other EU governments.

Uber, which carries out food deliveries through its Uber Eats unit, said Spain’s couriers were opposed to the changes. “We want to work with all relevant parties across the country to improve independent work, instead of eliminating it,” it said. “We are fully committed to raising the standard of work and giving independent workers more benefits while preserving flexibility and control.”

Companies such as Uber argue as many as three-quarters of the 30,000 couriers with food delivery platforms in Spain will be at risk of losing their jobs because of the legislation.

Díaz, a member of the Communist party, made her announcement after agreeing the central provisions of the law change with Spain’s main unions and employers federation. She said it would take some time for the legislation to be ready for cabinet approval, after which the companies would have 90 days to put the necessary changes in place.

The legal changes will also have to be endorsed by Spain’s parliament within a month of the decree taking effect.

Madrid’s move followed rulings across Europe in recent months and strong signals from the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, that it plans to legislate to increase gig workers’ rights as employees.

Last month the UK’s highest court ruled Uber employees were workers and not self-employed. Spain’s supreme court also said last September that workers for Glovo were employees — a decision that set the stage for Díaz’s announcement this week. There have been similar rulings in Italy, the Netherlands, France and Belgium. 

The European Commission also launched a broad consultation last month over the rights of workers in the gig economy, with a view to grant them the same rights as staff in more secure forms of employment.