UGT denounces Glovo, Amazon and Uber Eats for illegal assignment of workers

Glovo and Uber deliverymen in Madrid, in 2019.Marcos del Mazo / Getty / Getty Agency

The UGT union has denounced this Friday before the Labor Inspectorate a possible illegal transfer of workers to external contracting companies by Glovo, Amazon and Uber Eats.

It also denounces the use of an incorrect agreement in its distributors, which would mean, according to the union, "fraudulent forms" of hiring to "evade the responsibilities that direct hiring entails and minimize their labor costs."

More information

• Labor will establish by law that the distributors become salaried

The complaint has been presented at a decisive moment for the sector, pending the approval by decree of the so-called

rider

's

law

, which will prevent the platforms from using freelancers to send packages and food.

Rubén Ranz, coordinator of the UGT division specialized in platforms, claims to introduce the changes as soon as possible: “What you cannot do is give them three months (once the decree law is approved, companies will have three months to adapt their model) and wait act in good faith.

They give them more time to experiment and see what is most profitable for them ”, he assures.

UGT states that the three giants have chosen to outsource their fleets of delivery workers to temporary work agencies (ETTs) and logistics, but that the organization of daily work is still coordinated with the applications and algorithms of the platforms. "So much so, that there is no person in charge of these companies [ETT and contractors] who orders, directs or coordinates the activity of the distributors," read the complaints. "They simply put labor at the disposal of the main employer" and "do not provide a capital of specialized technical knowledge or an intangible heritage relevant to the execution of the assignment."

With this pretext, UGT points out before the Inspection a possible illegal transfer of workers from the platforms to external companies, based on article 42 of the Workers' Statute, which regulates the possibility of assigning the hiring of employees "temporarily" to work companies. temporary. Although, the rule adds that an illegal transfer is incurred when the company in charge of the employees "is limited to a mere provision of the workers" or "lacks an activity or an organization of its own."

The lawyers consulted differentiate between the delivery workers hired by the temporary agencies and those hired by companies specializing in logistics, since the temporary agencies are only allowed to assign staff, while the contractors must provide added value. Ignasi Beltran, professor of Labor Law at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, explains: “If [he hires her] he does not contribute anything because the distributors are organized with the application of the platform and only provide the labor, a transfer would be incurred illegal".

In the case of ETTs, experts focus on the temporary nature as the possible cause of an illegal transfer. "Glovo [and the rest of the platforms] need its delivery people all year round, obviously it cannot have its entire workforce through a temporary agency," says Adrián Todolí, professor of Labor Law at the University of Valencia. "It could be legal in the case of a peak in demand, but it has a difficult fit because if orders skyrocket every Friday it is not something that has happened," he adds.

The union has presented three contracts of drivers who distribute for these platforms.

Glovo's is through an ETT, while those of Amazon and Uber Eats are through logistics companies.

From Glovo they acknowledge that they have been using contracted couriers for last-mile shipments with large distributors, such as AliExpress.

"What there are are different pilot projects, and [the organization] may be through Glovo and it may be through the company," says a spokeswoman.

For its part, Amazon ensures that the companies that participate in its distribution "organize their own routes and journeys."

This newspaper tried to know the opinion of Uber, but did not receive a response.

A courier agreement to carry hamburgers

The union also denounces that these distributors are being hired through the courier agreement, "with worse salary and working conditions" than the provincial logistics agreement, which would be the one that would correspond in this case, according to the UGT.

"The agreement is a complex issue, because one day they carry books and another an electrical appliance," says Beltran, from the UOC.

In this case, the ambiguity of the law does not make it easy to establish a criterion either, since the courier agreement includes the “transport and delivery of documents, merchandise and small parcels in general”.

Rubén Ranz, from UGT, thinks that the platforms reinterpret the agreement in their favor: “They turn an envelope into a hamburger.

And at Amazon, an envelope in a van with 120 packages. "