Milan prosecutors order food delivery groups to hire riders, pay €733mn in fines

Milan prosecutors said on Wednesday they had ordered four major food delivery companies to officially hire more than 60,000 workers and pay a total of 733 million euros ($889 million) in fines after an investigation showed their working conditions were inadequate.

The investigation, which was launched in July 2019 after a number of road accidents involving the so-called riders, targeted Spanish food delivery app Foodinho-Glovo and the Italian units of food ordering companies Uber Eats, Just Eat and Deliveroo, the prosecutors said.

‘The vast majority of these riders are employed with occasional self-employment contracts … but it emerged without a shadow of a doubt that … they are fully included in the organisation of the company,’ Deputy Prosecutor Tiziana Siciliano said during a briefing.

The investigation also revealed that the workers were managed by an IT platform which ranked the riders according to performance.

‘This system actually forces the rider to accept all orders in order not to be demoted in the ranking and then have less work,’ she added. ‘This is the reason why it is impossible to take holidays or sick leave.’