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Description

AssoDelivery is an employer organisation of the Italian food delivery industry which aims to ensure that platforms operating in the food delivery sector have a unified representative organisation. On 15 September 2020, AssoDelivery and the General Labour Union (Unione Generale del Lavoro, UGL) signed the National Collective Agreement of Work that aims to increase the protection of riders who operate as self-employed workers in the Italian food delivery sector. The agreement was later rejected by the Italian Ministry of Labour and denounced  by the three nationally representative unions in Italy. 

AssoDelivery is an employer organisation of the Italian food delivery industry which aims to ensure that platforms operating in the food delivery sector have a unified representative organisation. On 15 September 2020, AssoDelivery and the General Labour Union (Unione Generale del Lavoro, UGL) signed the NationalCollective Agreement of Workthat aims to increase the protection of riders who operate as self-employed workers in the Italian food delivery sector.

Specifically, the contract provides for:

• a minimum compensation of €10 per hour worked, based on the time required to finish each delivery;
• supplementary allowances for night work, holidays and negative weather conditions;
• an hourly incentive of €7 for the first four months from the launch of the service in a new city, even in the absence of offers for work;
• a reward equal to €600 for every 2,000 deliveries made;
• the provision of at least one high visibility garment for all riders and a safety helmet for riders who make deliveries on their bicycles;
• insurance coverage against accidents (INAIL) and for damages against third parties;
• trainings, with particular reference to road safety and food transport safety;
• non-discrimination, equal opportunities and protection of privacy when offering offers for work;
• a set of initiatives to combat illegal work and crime;
• and trade union rights, that is a set amount of days and hours allocated to riders who take on the role of trade union leaders.

On 17 September 2020, the agreement was rejected by the Italian Ministry of Labour, stating that UGL does not sufficiently represent Italy's delivery workers. The Ministry of Labour also stated that the agreement cannot provide for piece-work methods of payment which do not comply with a 2019 labour law that requires delivery companies to pay out hourly wages. 

In the same month, the agreement was denounced by the three nationally representative unions - Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), Italian Confederation of Workers' Trade Unions (CISL), and Italian Labour Union (UIL). They argued that this agreement would worsen the conditions of the riders in the following perspectives:

• riders’ access to employment rights will be denied, as they are exclusively classified as self-employed and will continue to be hired as occasional workers;
• piecework pay is reintroduced: there is no guarantee that the minimum compensation of €10 are earned for an hour of work, as the €10 per hour refers to a whole hour spent in making deliveries;
• the reward of €600 for every 2,000 deliveries made is not practical, as the deliveries are predominantly decided by the platform that will hardly allow riders to reach 2,000 delivers per year;
• the supplementary allowances of night work shall only be applied between 1:00 and 7:00 a.m., with few riders actually working during this time.

CGIL, CISL and UIL wanted instead:

• the implementation of the protections provided for by the national agreement on logistics and goods transport signed by CGIL, CISL, UIL in 2018 for the whole food delivery sector such as 13th month's salary, paid holidays, paid sick leave, bonus payments for night work, work on Sundays and public holidays so as to ensure a higher overall salary and the rights typical of employment;
• a guaranteed minimum weekly working time for all workers and the bargaining of work organisation arrangements;
• real union rights, starting with representation;
• and the possibility of being classified as employees.

On 24 March 2021, the Experimental Framework Protocol was signed by AssoDelivery and CGIL, CISL, UIL. This protocol aims to address the issues related to illegal hiring, illicit intermediation and labour exploitation in the food delivery sector. The protocol introduces three key points:

• The commitment of the platform companies adhering to AssoDelivery to adopt an organisational model based on the Legislative Decree 231/2001, which provides a legal framework to prevent misconducts within a company, together with a code of ethics.
• The commitment of the platform companies not to use third party companies until a specific register of the same platforms is created.
• The establishment of a third party supervisory body to monitor the working conditions of riders and to report any specific reports to the public prosecutor’s office.

Further reading:

• Assodelivery and Italian trade union UGL concluded the first agreement in the food delivery sector
• AssoDelivery and UGL sign the first CCNL rider in Europe
• CGIL, CISL and UIL: UGL-AssoDelivery contract worsens the conditions of Italian riders
• Press release on the national agreement on Italian Riders - by CGIL, CISL and UIL
• Rider, nothing done to the ministry. The government: ‘Contract out of the law’
• Italy’s labour ministry slams delivery company deal with far-right union
• Rider: Assodelivery-trade unions protocol signed against exploitation (Rider: siglato protocollo Assodelivery-sindacati contro sfruttamento)

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Additional metadata

Keywords

social protection, representation, industrial relations, social dialogue, working conditions, discrimination, collective bargaining

Actors

Business association, Employee organisation

Sector

Transportation and storage