This situation allows abuses by companies that have considerably increased their turnover within the framework of a liberal economic model that favors them, together with high internet penetration.
There is no official data on how many “riders” there are, but all you have to do is go out into the street to see dozens of motorcycles and bicycles with backpacks with logos of multinationals in the sector such as Cornershop, Pedidos Ya, Rappi and Uber Eats.
According to the latest report from the Ministry of Labor, the number is close to 300,000, of which 43% are Chileans and 57% are foreigners, mostly Venezuelans (42.5%), followed by Colombians (4.4%) and Peruvians. (3.5%), mostly men.
“In Chile there are no official data on how many workers there are because the companies have been very jealous and because there is a high rate of informality in the business,” Rodrigo Palomo, from the University of Talca, explained to EFE.
The labor situation of these “riders”, most of them independent workers, is governed by the so-called “Uber Law” and Law 21,431, which modifies the Labor Code and establishes common standards applicable to all workers, whether salaried or independent.
Brazil has half the market
In Brazil, which, according to a study by the Fundación Getúlio Vargas (FGV) business school, accounts for half of the food delivery market in Latin America, The problems point to the threat of monopoly and also job insecurity, issues that the Lula Da Silva government claims to be willing to combat.
According to FGV, 80% of the market is concentrated in the local company iFood, which in 2020 already received a serious blow from the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) – an antitrust body – by vetoing exclusivity contracts with restaurants after a complaint from Uber Eats and the Colombian Rappi.
The fight is for a multimillion-dollar business: according to the Brazilian Association of Bars and Restaurants (Abrasel), food delivery sales reached about 7,000 million dollars in 2021, 20% of all sector turnover. A business that offers employment, but precarious employment, to 1.5 million people (called “micro-entrepreneurs”) according to figures from the Applied Economic Research Institute (IPEA).
“It is not possible that in the Brazil of the 21st century someone has to work more than 14-16 hours to sometimes not even earn a minimum wage and stay between six and seven years without rate adjustments”recently said the Minister of Labor, Luiz Marinho.
The situation in Argentina
In Argentina, the market is shared between Pedidos Ya (76%), part of the international Delivery Hero cluster founded in Germany, Rappi (22%), and a dozen other companieswhich currently deliver 67% of the products purchased through electronic channels, compared to 39% before the pandemic, according to a report by Kantar and the Argentine Chamber of Electronic Commerce corresponding to the first half of 2022.
“Many businessmen in the gastronomic sector say that they installed it in the pandemic” and that now “it is very difficult to go back because the sales channel has been absorbed by these companies,” the head of Framework and Inspections of the Motorcyclists Union Association explains to EFE Messengers and Services, Gonzalo Ottaviano.
The workers are considered collaborators or independent partners and the distributors work as a kind of self-employed: they declare through a system called “monotributo” and invoice the companies for the work carried out.
There is no regulation for these companies at the state level and only the city of Buenos Aires incorporated the figure of the “digital platform operator” into the Transit and Transportation Code in 2020, which allows companies to qualify the delivery drivers as self-employed.
This figure obliges them to establish an effective procedure to solve claims and provide work accident insurance and prohibits them from implementing incentive or sanction systems that promote risks to road safety and from sending notifications while the delivery drivers are making the delivery.
Controversy settled in Mexico
In Mexico, the controversy surrounding delivery and transfer platforms has been revived this January, the date on which taxi drivers and delivery men protested the arrival of Uber in Cancun, the country’s main tourist destination.
And the government of the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has chosen to sideline by ensuring that it is the responsibility of the states to regulate the operation of these companies, which are generally seen as a source to increase tax collection.
Despite the legal loopholes, Mexico is among the top ten countries in the world with the most sales in electronic commerce, and half of the population buys food and beverages through digital channels, according to the Mexican Association of Online Sales (AMVO).
But its expansion and rapid adoption caused the authorities, both local and federal, to impose higher rates, even with a specific tax regime for them since last year, with which they collect from both companies and distributors.
In addition, the strong pressure from members who travel the Mexican streets to deliver all kinds of orders, prompted the Mexican government to create an affiliation program so that they can access social security based on contributions of 40 pesos (2 dollars).
Colombia belongs to Rappi
In Colombia, the sector is led by the local Rappi, with 44%, born in 2015 as a home delivery startup, and which today is present in nine countries and more than 250 cities in the region with nearly three million users.
It is followed at a great distance by Ifood (9%) and DiDi Food (3.6%), all of them growing but with precariousness and exploitation as the main scourges.
In past years, dozens of “riders” protested in front of Rappi’s offices -including burning backpacks- to demand better working conditions and that the company take responsibility for their health in the event of an accident.
In this situation, The Colombian government assured in January that it is advancing in the study to regulate the more than 700 existing digital platforms in order to provide better working conditions for the people who provide their services.
“To regulate, it is necessary to establish a framework that allows both technological innovation and the protection of the labor rights of those who work in these schemes so that they have the minimum required by law in Colombia,” Darío Hidalgo, a professor of Transportation and Logistics of the Javeriana University.
“Social security, health, pensions, occupational risk administrator would improve the precarious situation of the providers of this service, which is in high demand,” he concludes.
Source: Ambito
