Italy's delivery riders keep winning in court but losing on the streets

By Anna Uras and Emilio Parodi

MILAN, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Years of court rulings against multinational food delivery firms in Italy have so far failed to curb their alleged exploitation of workers, according to the workers themselves and the lawyers who represent them.

Milan prosecutors on Wednesday placed the Italian arm of food delivery platform Deliveroo - owned by U.S. company DoorDash DASH.O - under judicial supervision and its chief executive under investigation over its treatment of workers.

The move came just two weeks after prosecutors launched similar proceedings against Foodinho, the local arm of Spanish delivery service Glovo.

DELIVERY FIRMS ORDERED TO 'REGULARISE' THEIR WORKERS

In both cases the companies have been ordered to "regularise" their thousands of workers in Italy and to respect its labour rules.

Rather than respect similar past rulings, food delivery outfits have played cat-and-mouse with the Italian courts, preferring to leave the country and reappear, pay fines, or rely on the notorious slowness of the Italian legal system, according to lawyers.

On its Italian website, Glovo, which is owned by Germany's Delivery Hero DHER.DE, promises potential workers "flexibility, freedom and competitive earnings."

The reality is much harsher, according to Italian court documents and the cycle couriers, or "riders", who deliver the meals. They highlight gruelling hours for little reward in terms of cash, rights or labour protection.

In a landmark 2020 decision, Italy's Supreme Court ruled against another Delivery Hero-owned unit, Foodora, saying that although its riders were technically self-employed, they were entitled to employee-type rights and protection by law.

Yet six years on, riders and their lawyers say little has changed and in some ways working conditions have even worsened, with riders complaining of having to wait for hours near restaurants to get orders after changes to their shift-booking system.

"Despite legal rulings, these companies (Glovo and Deliveroo) continue to offer self-employment contracts and payment by delivery," said Giulia Druetta, a lawyer who has represented Italy's riders in the courts for a decade.

"Many riders sleep on the streets of Milan between shifts because they can't afford rent in the city," she said.

Foodora left the Italian market in 2018, but its parent company returned in 2022 by acquiring a majority stake in Glovo, which had operated there since 2015.

IMMIGRANTS WITHOUT DOCUMENTS

In a brief statement after Wednesday's decision, Deliveroo said it was reviewing the legal documentation and cooperating with the investigation.

Glovo said last week it would provide "all relevant facts and data, which will demonstrate how riders receive fair compensation that is fully compliant with all legal requirements".

Testimonies from the inquiry into Glovo included numerous immigrant riders, often without documents. Some said they were also working for Deliveroo to try to make ends meet.

The prosecutors' decree on Deliveroo, seen by Reuters, listed signed statements by 54 workers, almost all from Pakistan and Nigeria, who said they worked seven days per week and up to 17 hours per day.

"This illegal situation must be brought to an end as soon as possible, also because it involves a significant number of workers who live on earnings below the poverty line," it said.

UberEats UBER.N in 2021 was involved in a similar labour exploitation probe as those now facing Glovo and Deliveroo. It left Italy two years later, citing business reasons.

LEGAL PROBLEMS ELSEWHERE IN EUROPE

Food delivery firms have also faced legal problems in other European countries.

Foodora has said it will leave the Finnish market by end-February, citing strategic refocusing, following a 2025 ruling by Finland's Supreme Administrative Court involving one of its competitors, which recognised food couriers as employees.

Deliveroo left the Netherlands at the end of 2022, citing business reasons, after a similar case.

In Spain, however, the riders have obtained their goal of more stable employment. Glovo said in 2024 it would start hiring its workers to comply with Spain's rider law of 2021. Delivery Hero estimated a 100-million-euro ($118 million) hit to earnings following the move.

NO SICK LEAVE OR VACATION

A 40-year-old woman from Turin who began working for Foodora in 2016, told Reuters its system for assigning work makes no allowance for riders' physical conditions, age or gender - which became an issue for her in 2024 when she suffered a health scare.

"I cycled and cycled and cycled, and at a certain point I had an arrhythmia and I realized something was happening, something I didn't like," said the woman, who asked not to be named.

Being technically self-employed like all of Glovo's riders, she had no right to sick leave or vacation.

She is still working for Glovo but is no longer willing to do nine or ten-hour shifts like most of her colleagues, so she tries to get by on around 400 euros per month.

($1 = 0.8467 euros)

(Editing by Gavin Jones and Andrei Khalip)

((anna.uras@thomsonreuters.com))