Three companies dominate the food cast business in Spain: Just Eat, Glovo and Uber Eats. The first has been operating with employees and the second the transition to that same model, after the system on its own. After the change in Glovo, Uber Eats is the only one of the three that continues to develop part of its activity, a practice in the spotlight of the Ministry of Labor. The Labor and Social Security inspection has initiated an investigation into the current Autonomous model of Uber EATs, according to sources known to the situation.
This newspaper has contacted the inspection to know the state of the investigation. The Inspector agency indicates that it does not comment on actions for the duty of stealth. Sources aware of the investigations require that they have just begun and that they are in a very initial phase.
The company confirms that research to its current model is underway: “We are fully cooperating with the Labor Inspection and we will continue to collaborate with the Government to ensure the stability of the long -term sector.” A company spokesman defends that “Uber Eats complies with current regulations in all the countries in which it operates.”
The work scrutiny to Uber Eats is not a surprise. When Glovo announced the change in his model, this newspaper, Joaquín Pérez Rey, if this company was the following inspection task. “If there is any other company, regardless of its size or its strength, which is breaking the Rider law At this time, the weight of the law will also fall on it with all its intensity. There will be no exceptions, ”replied number two of the Ministry.
Then that with the Rider lawapproved in 2021, it was decided that “in our country the model for the delivery It is labor. “” He is the only possible one. You are called Glovo, Uber Eats, Just Eat or as you want to call, there is no space for a model of false freelancers. We must face the sovereignty of the law, the sanctions, to the public discredit that involves erecting your business on precariousness. It is not worth it, ”he added.
Hybrid model
The Uber Eats model in Spain is hybrid: one part works salaried through subcontracts [que en el sector se conocen como flotas] And another does it on its own, as self -employed. The company does not detail how many distributors use in each model. “In Spain, our hybrid model offers distributors the freedom to choose between working as salaried employees, hired by one of our associated fleets, or as self -employed using a tool that guarantees full autonomy, including the possibility of setting their own rates or accepting and rejecting orders when they wish,” says a company spokesman.
Before this hybrid model, Uber Eats has worked with other work systems. At the beginning, when, it only operated with freelancers. “It was a 100% autonomous model, such as Glovo [por entonces]. But they changed to the approval of the Rider lawat the end of 2021, ”the head of UGT digital platforms, Fernando García, recalled from this newspaper. Rider law. “Like me,” Garcia recalls, “some 4,500 people were disconnected. Not fired, according to the company, disconnected. That was a massive dismissal.”
The Uber Eats reaction to the Rider law It was to change to a labor model, which today maintains for VTC cars. There are no freelancers, but neither employed directly by the company: they operate with fleets, subcontracts that use their drivers. Then Glovo did not move, he persisted in his autonomous operation, which changed shortly after the Uber Eats strategy. The general director of the company in Spain, Courtney Tims, said: “Once the transition period has elapsed, all companies had to adapt to the new law. All? No, not all. Glovo, the largest company, leader of the leader delivery In Spain, he decided to continue operating with self -employed workers. ”
“Meanwhile, we see impotence how the government has failed to enforce the Rider law. And how the disadvantage situation of all the companies that we fulfill it worsens every day. Given this situation, we all ask ourselves: should we follow the example of Glovo and work with freelancers to compete on equal terms? ”Times wondered in the same letter. He answered herself shortly after, when Uber Eats announced a new turn: she reopened the door to the distributors on their own. Salaries via subcontractors and others are autonomous.
Uber Eats has been defending that its new way of operating with freelancers does respect the Rider lawin essence because, they explain, the app does not give them orders, it gives freedom to the delivery man. As specified by the company, the delivery man knows the order detail before accepting and is not penalized if he rejects it; You can determine the minimum price per kilometer at each order; and receive only offers that are equal to or higher than that rate.
Unions have a very different opinion. They believe that this Uber Eats model, now under the magnifying glass of the inspection, does not meet the Rider lawand they have been stressing that the previous model, when it only operated with freelancers, was already investigated by the inspection. “Yes there are investigations and sentences, although not firm, of its previous autonomous model. Over time they will confirm fines,” Garcia said in December last year. Uber Eats often remember that its autonomous model is obtaining judicial support in countries such as Portugal and that it respects, which Spain has not yet transposed.
The annual accounts that the Portier Eats Spain company (with which it develops this UBER EATs activity in Spain) deposited in the Mercantile Registry contemplated a total of 136 million in provisions for fiscal and legal contingencies associated with its hiring model. These are the financial statements of 2021, but were formulated on July 31, 2024, two and a half years after their conclusion.
Glovo and Just Eat, faced in justice
The other two large companies in the sector, Glovo and Just Eat, are engaged. The second, the only one that has fully accepted the Rider law From the beginning, he denounced Glovo for unfair competition in December last year. He claims 295 million euros in damages. At the same time, the CEO of Glovo defends himself from the accusation of committing an alleged crime against the rights of his workers, punished with prison sentences from six months to six years. The Prosecutor’s Office accuses him of “impairing and suppressing” the labor rights of his distributors for his insistence on operating with false freelancers.
