The ‘riders’ from the Canary Islands and the sticks on the wheels: two years of unrewarded struggle to enforce the law

2023-08-13 20:00:09

When Lucía came to the Canary Islands from Venezuela, five years ago now, the first thing she did was try her luck working as a waitress in the hotel business.. The contract they offered him stated in writing that his workday was 40 hours a week, but he always ended up working 90 hours. Tired of working to exhaustion for less than minimum wage and only having the right to rest one day a week, he gave up. It was then that some compatriots offered him to stay in the hospitality sector and gain some “independence” when it came to organizing his schedules working for an emerging home delivery company.. Being a foreigner and without having contacts that would recommend her in other businesses, she now asks on the air: «What else could I do but join one of those ‘startups’? There are no more jobs for us.”.

After years working as a ‘rider’ and after having become one of the most combative delivery women in the Canary Islands – even suffering reprisals for it – Lucía is very clear: «We are not autonomous. We are false self-employed ». And it is that, as she explains, “it is the delivery company that coordinates the work that each delivery person does and sets their rates, so autonomy is non-existent.” This is what two Supreme Court rulings in Spain have said, one against Glovo in 2020 and another against Deliveroo in 2021. Also known as the ‘rider’ law (Royal Decree-Law 9/2021), which entered into force in Spain on August 12, 2021, recognizes on paper the rights of the collective.

Lucía calculates that in the Islands there are at least 200 delivery men who continue to work as freelancers for companies such as Glovo and Uber Eats despite the “work” that has been recognized several times for the ‘riders’. Although he acknowledges that This figure “has to be taken with tweezers”, because every day “the people who register in the applications vary”.

Francisco Javier Velasco, secretary of Trade Union Action of the Federation of Workers’ Commission Services (CCOO) in the Canary Islands, confirmed to this newspaper that in the union there are frequent queries from the ‘riders’ about who should bear the costs of the “acquisition of the material” -if the worker or the company- as well as on preventive measures, with respect to which there are still “many shortcomings”. Regarding work material, there are those who have even had to pay for the square box they carry on their backs and where they keep their food. In addition, some workers like Lucía pay a fee to access the application through which orders arrive.

With regard to the false self-employed, the unions cannot do more, for now, than press for “more labor inspections” and complaints to be processed “more quickly” that comply with the ‘rider law’. And it is that, pressure measures such as protests or strikes are not being viable in a “so precarious” and “poorly organized” sector.

This reality is also supported by Lucía, who has been linked to the UGT union in the Canary Islands and in 2020 led a boycott against the mobile application of a delivery company. For a whole day, the Canarian ‘riders’ agreed to keep the application active but not accept any order, which meant that the company lost practically all the income from that day. However, the company found out the name of the organizers of the action and suspended their account for months, depriving them of work.

As for accidents that occur while a distribution is being made, from CCOO they defend that they are “work accidents” and fight so that they are recognized as such. When a ‘rider’ asks them for help after having suffered a mishap on the roads of the Canary Islands, it is the technicians of the union, in collaboration with the Labor Inspectorate and, in parallel with Traffic, who make the company take charge of the worker’s rights.

But if it is not denounced, what happens is that companies barely recognize a 30-day sick leave. This is what happened to Lucía when he fell off his motorcycle and hit his face on the asphalt. The doctors told him that he would need three months of rest, but the company he works for “disengaged in the second month” and barely paid him a thousand euros. In addition, to obtain this payment, she, Lucía, had to attach numerous photographs of the accident and the damage suffered.

With the fight she is carrying and the “sticks in the wheels” that they have put on her, the ‘rider’ defines what she feels as “exhaustion” and assures that she has lost the desire to continue fighting: “What for, if she has only given me brought consequences? For this reason, she longs for the day when the “rider law” “is fulfilled” and stop charging only 2.5 euros for each trip she makes.

Defenseless against accidents and the sun in the Islands

The Canary Islands have just gone through a heat wave that has left record temperatures in many municipalities. To prevent this intense heat from affecting workers on the street, in May of this year Royal Decree-Law 4/2023 of May 11 was approved in Spain, which addresses, among other issues, the prevention of occupational risks in episodes of high temperatures. However, the CCOO and UGT fear that the delivery companies that operate in the Canary Islands, such as Glovo and Uber Eats, are not taking measures to protect workers.

The ‘riders’ work, in many cases, driving bicycles that require them to make a “significant physical effort” and they do so on the asphalt and under the sun. That is why Francisco Javier Velasco (CCOO) recalls that, if an accident occurs due to these conditions, it must also be recognized as “labor” like any other that occurs during the day. From UGT, they have even made a brochure with prevention measures for delivery people.