- At a time when Glovo was a small and almost unknown company, when he was only in the major cities of the Spanish state, a car imbibed one of the first distributors, Isaac Cuende, in active employment. The first question the company asked when it was aware of the accident was whether the transportation of orders was being carried out at that time. Cuende came out of the accident with his broken arm; fortunately, nothing more serious. However, when he returned to work, he discovered that the application only allowed him to work in a very limited number of hours. If we do not work continuously for Glovo, the workers lose “points of excellence” and thus the ability to choose the day. So, Cuende has sued the company.
On 25 May, about eleven and a half in the evening, a van tossed a Glovo dealer and killed him at the event in central Barcelona. But today things are very different. Glovo is an international brand to which several investors have just given $169 million and which faces in court with its workers due to working conditions. Now, therefore, after the death of a worker by the industry's service of sending fast food home, Glovo has become responsible for publicly expressing his condolences to the family and has insisted that he will soon “activate” the private insurance he has for these cases.
Glovo apologised for this “terrible accident”, but did not recognise in any case that the same accident would not have happened if the situation had been otherwise. Glovo encourages dealers to work as soon as possible, as the only way to get money is to bike quickly and risk yourself. Glovo sends cyclists to work at the most dangerous hours, i.e. at night. Glovo does not offer its workers any training for safety, it does not offer any training. Glovo is a society in which the most desperate members of society live and for this they have to bring their physical and mental resistance to the extreme. It is not surprising, therefore, that all this leads to a fatal accident. It is strange that it would not have happened before. Glovo’s request for forgiveness is of no use if he does not take care of the conditions that have led to this accident, as the application has been specifically designed for workers to behave in a dangerous way.
If these problems are not solved and the implementation mechanism is modified, Glovo's regret is non-existent. It will not, however, because the characteristics mentioned are the basis of its business model. It cannot. It would lose the advantage that has made it competitive in the sector.
In the contract I signed with Glovo, clause 3.3 reads: “The Independent Professional assumes and assumes the risk and convenience of the request or the micro task. (...) [Glovo] is also not liable for any material or personal damage suffered by the Independent Professional during his working day. He shall take out liability insurance ...”.
Perhaps in this case Glovo compensates the family with public opinion. But the only thing that matters is the contract. And the contract says, make the jerk.
This death is the price of the on-demand economy. This death is the price of your pizza.