The freelance drivers of Spain’s app-based food delivery company Glovo will be hired as employees after government pressure to give them employment contracts, German owners Delivery Hero said on Monday.
“Glovo’s management has decided to move from a freelance model to an employment-based model for its delivery drivers in Spain to avoid further legal uncertainties that would lead to an increase in contingencies,” the company said in a statement.
The change in “operating model” will be limited to Glovo’s operations in Spain and will reduce Delivery Hero’s core profit by 100 million euros ($105 million) in 2025, it added.
Spain passed the first European law in 2021 to explicitly regulate the status of delivery workers, requiring them to be recognized as employees rather than considered self-employed freelancers.
This means that app-based food delivery companies like Glovo must pay their riders – who travel mainly by bicycle and motorcycle – employee contributions for benefits such as sick leave and protection against dismissal.
Since the adoption of the so-called ‘Rider Law’, the Spanish Ministry of Labor has imposed fines on Glovo totaling 205 million euros.
“Laws must be obeyed. We’ve said it before: no exceptions. No major company is above the law. Democracy wins,” Labor Secretary Yolanda Diaz wrote on social media after Delivery Hero’s announcement.
Barcelona-based Glovo was bought by Berlin-headquartered Delivery Hero in 2022.
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