Around Europe, about 28 million delivery workers are employed by over 500 digital platforms. That number is expected to exceed 40 million in the near future.
The platforms claim that delivery workers are independent contractors, free to choose when to work and for which platform to serve. They claim the opposite, that they are in fact dependent employees (wage-earners) and poorly paid ones.
With a 2021 law, Greece was three years ahead of the European Union in trying to regulate the delivery market. Still, in cases of dispute, it was the delivery people who had to prove malpractice.
But new regulations in preparation by the EU will shift the onus to the platforms, and to actual individuals – not the algorithms that regulate the employees’ work – sometimes deplatforming them or shutting them down from popular routes or peak hours.
