Glovo delivery app supermarket workers call 9-day strike in Barcelona

Outsourced temporary employees demand improved labor conditions

Glovo delivery riders protesting outside the company headquarters in Barcelona on August 16, 2021 (by Albert Cadanet)
Glovo delivery riders protesting outside the company headquarters in Barcelona on August 16, 2021 (by Albert Cadanet) / Guifré Jordan

Guifré Jordan | Barcelona

August 24, 2021 02:08 PM

Not even two weeks after Spain's so-called 'Rider Law' came into force, forcing companies to recognize delivery workers as employees rather than self-employed workers, Glovo is once again under pressure.

The delivery app, founded in Barcelona in 2015 and used mainly to order meals from restaurants, also provides dark supermarket services exclusively for online shopping.

And although these workers are not self-employed, Glovo outsources their services to a temporary employment company.

Workers and CCOO trade unionists have, as a result, called on the 344 people at Glovo's six dark supermarkets and the company headquarters in the Catalan capital to strike for 9 days – from Friday to Sunday for three weekends in a row starting on August 27 – in an attempt to improve their working conditions by becoming full-time Glovo employees.

Their work "is essential rather than temporary in nature," the CCOO manifesto reads, arguing that conditions are "very precarious."

Increased weekend and holiday pay, compensation for private vehicle use, and paid 5-minute breaks per hour are also among their list of demands.

Workers are planning to protest outside Glovo's headquarters in Barcelona's Poblenou neighborhood on August 27.