The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, inaugurates in October 2021 the new technological center that the multinational company Glovo. COMMUNITY OF MADRID

The Community of Madrid, chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, finalizes an agreement to distribute food among vulnerable people with Glovo, a company sanctioned with more than 205 million euros for violating the rights of workers.

The agreement, which will not include economic consideration in favor of the company, according to the two parties involved, is part of the strategy to improve the image of a company in the eye of the hurricane due to its constant problems with the Labor Inspectorate for using false self-employed or workers without a work permit, or by the decision to dismiss 6.5% of its employees (250).

A trajectory that the regional Administration does not seem to consider reprehensible.

Quite the opposite.

After Ayuso's visit to the headquarters of the delivery company in 2021, the Minister of Family, Youth and Social Policy,

“These delivery men are precarious workers who could very well end up going to the soup kitchens where they are going to work [to pick up the food they distribute].

That is Ayuso's liberal dystopia ”, laments Emilio Delgado, deputy of Más Madrid.

"We do not share this

model and we are committed to Madrid companies and entities that respect current legislation and labor rights," he continues.

And he complains: "The Community of Madrid considers that to manage soup kitchens and bring food to people without resources, the ideal company is Glovo, which has made its fortune by literally crushing the rights of its workers, and which is an example of the The most stark capitalism, the flagship of job insecurity in Spain”.

In total, Glovo has been punished for acting improperly with 37,348 false self-employed workers or foreign workers without a work permit.

This has led to sanctions of 205.3 million euros, 125.3 million in sanctions and 80 million in contribution settlement records.

Glovo defends itself by indicating that the inspected period that derives in these sanctions is prior to the entry into force of the

.

In parallel, and in the face of breaches in a sector mostly built on false self-employed workers, the state government seeks to toughen crimes against the rights of workers with prison terms included in the Penal Code.

However, it is difficult for there to be any representative of the company who defends its interests more eloquently than the one used this Thursday in the Assembly by counselor Dancausa.

The representative of the Government of Díaz Ayuso has acted as spokesperson for the company.

The memory of Telepizza

"The first thing is a clarification: all the sanctions that Glovo has are prior to the

," Dancausa said during the plenary session of control of the regional government, and in reference to the norm that obliges to hire delivery drivers who work for platforms digital as false freelancers.

"We would have been delighted if the offer made to us by Glovo had been made by Correos, a public company where Mr. Sánchez appointed his former chief of staff as president," he continued.

“Glovo makes its technology available to social entities to facilitate the distribution of food baskets to people in vulnerable situations”, the counselor continued.

"Since 2020, and thanks to the collaboration of more than 80 entities, more than 700 tons of food have been recovered and more than 200,000 food baskets have been delivered," she added.

"NGOs such as Cáritas, or the Down Syndrome Foundation, among many others, collaborate with Glovo through this initiative... but you are only interested in talking about the problems that a company may have with the Labor Inspectorate."

Several of these arguments are traced word for word to the argument of the company, as verified by this newspaper when collecting its version.

The inspected period referred to in the file is prior to the entry into force of what is known as the

, ”added a company spokesperson about the last fine received.

"In addition to not being a consequence of the

because it is from a previous period, the sanction proposal refers to an operating model that no longer exists in Spain," he continued.

There is no report from the Labor Inspectorate or any type of judicial pronouncement on the new unpublished model currently available in Spain Glovo is going to appeal this sanction proposal.

The coincident versions and the will to reach an agreement are an example of the coordination between the Ayuso government and private companies related to food that is unprecedented.

Thus, during the worst of the pandemic, the regional president repeatedly defended sending menus from Telepizza, Rodilla or Viena Capellanes to families entitled to a dining scholarship for being recipients of the Minimum Insertion Income (RMI).

Now comes the turn of the delivery company Glovo, in the absence of knowing the details of an agreement that will be signed and published in the regional bulletin soon.

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