'Glovo scams': delivery app supermarket workers in Barcelona demand better labor conditions

All of the Glovo delivery app's supermarket workers in Barcelona participated in the first day of a 9-day strike to demand better labor conditions, according to the CCOO trade union.  

Although not self-employed, the company has hired its dark supermarket workers, which provides online shopping services only, through a temporary employment agency.

The workers, on the other hand, argue that they are essential to the company’s structure and basic functioning, and should therefore be employed directly by Glovo. The nine-day strike announced earlier this week, which will take place over three consecutive weekends, aims to persuade the company to hire them and provide them with full-time contracts.

Increased weekend and holiday pay, compensation for private vehicle use, and paid 5-minute breaks per hour are also among their list of demands, as well as being able to use toilets, locker rooms, water, and charging stations.

The workers organized several marches on Friday that ended in a demonstration outside the company's headquarters in Barcelona's Poblenou neighborhood.

A few hundred people attended the peaceful protest, with chants such as "Glovo scams" and "United delivery workers will never be defeated."

This comes weeks after Spain's so-called 'Rider Law' came into force, the first of its kind in the EU, forcing companies to recognize delivery workers as employees rather than self-employed workers.

"We cannot have companies that boast about being innovative, modern and part of the sharing economy, which, at the same time, exploit workers in very tough conditions, including the fact that their wage is under the minimum salary," said CCOO official Carmen Juares.