Just Eat, the home delivery platform, intends to extend employment contracts to delivery drivers, in order to provide legal security to the sector in Spain. A sector that, in the words of its general director in Spain, Íñigo Barea, “has changed a lot”, as commented in the presentation of the 2023 “Gastrometro” study, which reports on trends in the delivery business.
Barea highlights that “the only way to provide stability and legal security to a sector that has changed a lot and achieved so much in such a short time” is to “comply with the law regarding the labor model.”
The so-called ‘Rider Law’ came into force in August 2021. This is an additional provision in the Workers’ Statute, which includes the “presumption of employment” in the field of digital delivery platforms. The objective of this measure is to end the use of “false self-employed” as delivery people, forcing these companies as employees.
Consensus with social agents
“The sector has passed the course but has the labor model as a pending subject,” says the director of the platform. He also wanted to highlight the rulings of the Supreme Court, which mark the employment relationship and the consensus of the different social agents to carry out the aforementioned norm.
He also stressed the responsibility of transporting the products in the best conditions, adding that “employment contracts allow for very good control of the backpacks, which are cleaned daily and changed regularly.” “Synchronization” with the rest of the actors in the chain “is key but not always easy,” especially during times of greatest demand, according to the person in charge.
Just eat has 400 employees and more than 2,000 contracted delivery drivers in its ranks. According to Barea, they feel frustrated to see that the sector continues to show resistance to extending contracts to delivery people, remembering that “without them there are no deliveries.”
Just Eat Spain has a presence in more than 2,800 municipalities, covering 95% of the population. Orders are usually delivered within half an hour, and it is currently incorporating new services, such as parapharmacy. In addition, Barea specifies that they are “pivoting new areas such as the shopping basket”, while trying to “find how to create a balance to create value” for users, establishments and companies in the sector.
Just Eat has recorded a 272% increase in shopping basket orders, driven by the presence of 17 food markets and the proximity of 2,000 independent establishments and supermarket chains such as DIA.
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