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The country’s labour ministry claims Glovo ‘violated labour rights’ and failed to give contracts to more than 10,600 of its riders.
Delivery start-up Glovo has been fined nearly €79m by Spanish authorities for allegedly violating labour laws.
The country’s labour ministry claims Glovo did not hire its delivery riders under formal contracts and failed to contribute to social security and other payments, Reuters reports. Labour minister Yolanda Diaz told reporters that the company “violated fundamental labour rights” and obstructed an investigation into the company.
“For this reason, action has been taken against this company,” Diaz said. “We will make them comply with the law.”
Glovo claims it fully cooperated with the investigation and plans to appeal the ministry’s decision.
Last year, major regulatory changes in Spain upended the gig economy model used by companies including Glovo and Uber. The Spanish law requires these companies to employ their couriers and drivers as staff.
The labour ministry claims Glovo failed to give labour contracts to more than 10,600 riders since this law came into effect, Reuters reported.
Last month, local media reported that the Spanish company hired around 2,000 workers, but kept almost 80pc of the workers in its fleet as freelancers.
Legislators around the world have been working to formalise the employment status of gig workers.
Last September, a resolution was adopted in the European Parliament that called for gig workers on digital platforms to be given the same rights as traditional employees. This resolution included tech-driven food delivery services such as Deliveroo and transport services such as Uber as ‘digital platforms’.
The founders and CEOs of Glovo, Delivery Hero, Wolt and Bolt came together last year to lobby for worker rules in Europe. They established the European Purpose Project to “work together for better regulation of platform companies” in Europe.
Last year, Uber lost a UK court battle on how it classifies its drivers. The UK supreme court ruled that its drivers should be classified as workers and not independent contractors.
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