"Uber’s food delivery platform agrees to pay severance to couriers let go ahead of Spain’s Riders law", 13 Dec 2022

Uber’s delivery business in Spain has settled with local labor unions which were challenging its dismissal of more than 4,000 riders in August last year ahead of a labor law reform coming into force. The company acknowledged that the couriers were collectively dismissed in violation of local labor laws — agreeing to pay severance equivalent to 45 days’ salary per year worked (via Reuters).

In a statement emailed to TechCrunch, an Uber spokesperson said:

This agreement with worker unions in Spain aims at compensating couriers who were not able to access our app following the introduction of the Rider Law in 2021. We have since then launched a new model in full compliance with the new local regulatory framework and remain open to dialogue with all relevant parties to continue to improve independent work for all.

The ‘Riders law,’ as the 2021 Spanish labour law reform is known, was aimed at platforms perceived to be falsely classifying delivery couriers as self-employed — introducing a presumption of employment for those providing such services through digital platforms.

Uber’s decision to let go of thousands of couriers ahead of this change in their employment status was dubbed a de facto collective dismissal by unions FeSMC-UGT and CCOO-Servicios — who challenged its action before the National Court. The court initially dismissed the challenge but in a ruling in July the Supreme Court revoked the lower court’s decision, deciding that the unions could challenge the dismissal and triggering a retrial.

Uber appears to have settled to avoid this, as the retrial in the National Court was scheduled for today...

While Uber has agreed to recognize and pay out for a collective dismissal, it has not recognized the former couriers as employees — and has recently changed how it responds to Spain’s Riders law.

An Uber spokesperson told us the company now operates two different models in Spain — one of which entails working with third-party fleet partners who employ couriers directly. But it has also, since September, launched a tweaked model which enables couriers to remain independent (i.e., self-employed) without — it claims –breaching the Riders law...

Delivery platforms in Spain responded in a variety of ways to the change in the labor law last year — including pulling out of the market altogether (in the case of Deliveroo). Others claimed to have adapted their models, such as homegrown rival Glovo, which claimed it would take on some riders as staff but does not appear to have employed the vast majority of its couriers...