A former worker of the company Glovo de Vitoria-Gasteiz has informed ARGIA that the Social Security of Álava has sued Glovo for not discharging its workers and therefore not making the corresponding contribution, in violation of the Workers’ Statute.

The complaint is based on a labour inspection initiated by the Social Security Agency on 21 February 2020. Some hospitality establishments in Vitoria-Gasteiz were inspected, especially fast-food hamburgers. In this inspection 10 Glovo riders were identified. Two weeks later, at the headquarters of the Social Security, the relationship of these distributors with Glovo was explained, informing them about contracts, scoring system, prices, tours, application, communication with the company (mails, chats) and if they were discharged into self-employed.

In the inspection they moved to the Glovo headquarters in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Zapatería, 44) and found that it was closed, "without any indication of activity". Subsequently, between April 2018 and March 2020, the multinational was asked for the list of all workers and the settlement act of Glovo in Álava. In total, 309 people.

After the study, the Social Security Agency of Álava considers that the employment relationship of these 309 workers with the company Glovo should be considered "labor" and, therefore, protected by the Workers Statute. In other words, they must be treated as full-fledged workers and not as false self-employed. Thus, Glovo had to leave the Social Security and pay the corresponding contributions. To this end, the claim is based on the judgment of the Spanish Supreme Court of September last year. This judgment stated for the first time that Glovo is not merely an intermediary in the procurement of services between traders and distributors because of the employment relationship between Glovo and a distributor.

To sue Glovo the Social Security has used, among others, the following arguments:

- Glovo uses a computer program for the assignment of tasks based on the assessment of workers. In this way, the "theoretical freedom" workers have to choose the hours they supposedly have allocated and to reject their requests is conditioned.

- Glovo has the power to punish dealers for various behaviors, as an expression of the power the employer has over the worker. Glovo controls the service in real time, while the dealer has very limited autonomy, which only reaches secondary issues: which means of transport to use or which routes to choose.

Glovo's lawyer has argued otherwise by considering "gray" the area in which the "heterogeneous relationship" between workers and the company is defined. In addition, he said that Social Security "has no competence to qualify these relationships or to interpret the contracts" of companies.

The conciliation act will be held at the Vitoria-Gasteiz Court on 30 November and, if there is no agreement between the parties, a trial will be held.

Workers also in demand

Social Security has denounced Glovo, but also the workers between 2018 and 2020. Also, 309 dealers appear as defendants in the case opened by the Social Security, in which 309 people are included. However, as in the similar trials held in Bilbao and Pamplona, it is to be hoped that the distributors claim that Glovo denied them the status of wage earners and that they would return the fees they had to pay “unfairly” as self-employed.