Walter Finch
GLOVO has been forced to abandon its ‘false self-employment’ model and will now hand its drivers legal employment contracts.
The company will transition away from its old way, which claimed that its drivers were ‘entrepreneurs’, following years of intense legal pressure from Spanish authorities.
Around 60,000 delivery workers who have worked for Glovo since 2021 will now become regularly employed with all the benefits it brings, according to Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz.
The move follows repeated warnings and substantial fines from labour inspectors, who have long argued that Glovo was systematically exploiting workers by classifying them as independent contractors instead of employees.
The ‘false self-employment’ model allowed Glovo to get away with not paying €267 million in Social Security contributions, a burden that instead fell on its own drivers.
Competitor Just Eat has already filed a lawsuit against Glovo, claiming the company gained an unfair competitive advantage by avoiding proper employment costs – estimated at over €645 million in savings.
Local riders’ rights group Riders X Derechos has responded with caution, highlighting Glovo’s ‘history of lawbreaking’ and calling for transparency in their employment practices.
“After 8 years of struggle, thousands of layoffs and colleagues who have lost their lives, it seems that Glovo has understood that it must hire its delivery drivers,” the group wrote on X.
“Despite this announcement, we will not believe anything until the last delivery person is hired.”
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The decision comes just a day before the company’s founder, Oscar Pierre, was due to appear in criminal court in Barcelona.
He stands accused of ‘suppressing and undermining’ the rights of his drivers.
The Spanish government has already modified the Penal Code to enforce stricter penalties on companies misclassifying workers, with potential prison sentences of six months to six years.
This landmark decision isn’t just about Glovo. It signals a significant shift in how digital platform companies treat workers in Spain, potentially setting a precedent for similar businesses across Europe.
Díaz said: “A young person cycling with a mobile phone is not an entrepreneur. We have made rules to ensure this.”
