MADRID — Spain approved a pioneering law last week that gives delivery platforms a mid-August deadline to hire workers currently freelancing for them and that requires transparency of artificial intelligence used to manage workforces.
The royal decree passed by the center-left ruling coalition immediately affects some 30,000 couriers. It comes in the wake of a ruling by Spain’s top court last year and at a time when other countries in Europe and elsewhere are deciding on a labor model for the so-called gig economy, which is often blamed for precarious jobs and low salaries.
That’s because, until now, gig and other contractor workers had to pay social security fees from their own pockets if they wanted to receive benefits including unemployment subsidies and a public pension.
App-based food delivery businesses say that the law threatens $851 million industry in Spain and some of the couriers took to the streets last week in different cities because they say that remaining self-employed benefits them.
Francisco Lopez, 37, said he was making $2,900 per month working an average of seven hours daily, more than he could have made at his previous job at Barcelona.
“A lot of us have families and children. By working for more than one company we can adjust our schedule. The rates are currently not the best, but they do offer us an economic cushion,” said Lopez, who has managed to send remittances to his relatives in Colombia during the pandemic.
But Labor Minister Yolanda Diaz…
