"Spain fines delivery app Glovo €79 million for labour law breaches", 22 Sep 2022

Delivery company Glovo was fined €79 million by Spain’s labour ministry for violating a law that requires food delivery platforms to hire employees formally.

Labour authorities imposed the record fine for having recruited 10,614 workers as “false self-employed” (“falsos autónomos”) and not as formal or permanent employees, thus violating the Iberian country’s Social Security law.

On Wednesday, Spanish Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz (Unidas Podemos/GUE-NGL) accused Glovo of “violating” the labour rights of its workers and of “obstructing” investigations of the Labour Inspectorate, something she described as “extremely serious” in a social and democratic State, in which companies “have to comply with the law,” EURACTIV’s partner EFE reported.

Glovo was founded in Barcelona in 2015. It is an on-demand service that purchases and delivers products via its mobile app. Food delivery is its most popular service.

A controversial ‘Riders Law’ (ley rider) that has been in force since August 2021 obliges digital delivery platforms in Spain to hire their delivery drivers as regular employees, among other measures...

On Monday, the Spanish labour ministry began to notify several infringement procedures against the company in its Barcelona headquarters and Valencian branch...