Rider: Deliveroo and the courts move towards an agreement
Following the appointment of an administrator, the food delivery company is proposing a pay rate of 14 euros per hour for its riders. Negotiations with the administrator are still ongoing.
Negotiations are still ongoing between the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office and the food delivery company Deliveroo, which was placed under judicial administration last March on charges of illegal recruitment. Nevertheless, the outlines of a possible initial agreement are beginning to emerge, which will have to be formally approved by the court-appointed administrator selected by the Milan investigating magistrate (at the request of Public Prosecutor Paolo Storari, who launched the investigation).
According to initial reports, the international company – one of the sector’s market leaders – intends to pay its riders 14 euros gross per hour, increasing the delivery fee to 3.77 euros. If the agreement is indeed signed, it will come into effect from September.
However, there is no question of hiring the riders or recognising them as employees of the company: Deliveroo does not agree with this approach.
The public prosecutor’s office is currently taking a cautious approach: the prosecutor is reportedly assessing whether or not it works; he does not appear to be opposed to it a priori, but continues to stress that the correct course of action would be to recognise the employment relationship. After all, he already made this clear a few days ago in the Glovo case, which is similar to that of Deliveroo: in that instance, Storari issued a negative opinion on the request to suspend judicial administration, also emphasising that the recent ‘1 May decree’ issued by the Meloni government suggests interpreting the relationship as one of employment (furthermore, in his negative opinion on Glovo, the public prosecutor emphasised that the pay rise is fictitious because three hours out of ten are deducted).
The investigators’ main concern is that the activity run by an account is, in effect, a form of digital labour exploitation, which legitimises piecework and allows hourly rates to be driven down, and that it must therefore be dismantled.
