Drivers for Spanish food delivery app Glovo will become full-time employees

By The Associated Press

A Glovo food delivery courier rides through the streets of Madrid, Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Bernat Armangue]

MADRID (AP) — Thousands of delivery drivers in Spain working for the food delivery app Glovo will soon be full employees after the company announced Monday that it was moving to an employment-based model.

The decision follows years of pressure from the Spanish government to give app-based drivers labor contracts.

In a statement, Glovo’s Berlin-based parent company Delivery Hero, said Glovo is moving from a freelance model to an employment-based one to avoid legal uncertainties, and that it anticipated a related 100 million euro ($105 million) hit to earnings in 2025.

“We still believe the freelance model offers more flexibility to a wider range of riders to be part of the delivery community,” Glovo said in a statement.

The new model will be rolled out in more than 900 locations in Spain where Glovo operates, the company said, affecting about 15,000 drivers.

Spain had fined Glovo in 2022 and 2023 for violating labor laws. At the time, Spain’s labor ministry said the company was being punished for not contracting its drivers as employees and for giving gigs to immigrants who lacked proper documentation and work permits.

Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz applauded the move on Monday.

“No company, no matter how large it is, no matter how much power it has, no great technology can impose itself on democracy,” Díaz told Spanish TV channel Televisión Española. “The important thing is that finally these people will be workers in our country.”

In 2021, Díaz successfully championed a new “Riders Law” that classified food delivery drivers as employees of the digital platforms they work for, as opposed to self-employed freelancers.

Glovo operates in more than 20 countries, most of them in Europe.