Digital platforms targeted by 900 participations from the Working Conditions Authority

The Working Conditions Authority sent almost 900 reports of irregularities detected in the activity of digital platforms.

In statements to RenaissanceMaria Fernando Campos highlights that 16 platforms were identified, so the inspection action went far beyond the three best-known applications on the market: Uber Eats, Glovo and Bolt Food.

In the second half of 2023, ACT carried out more than 2 thousand inspection visits, covering a total of 2600 couriersalso reveals the assessment made by ACT to Renascença.

The inspectors opened almost 1,800 cases, which resulted in the collection of 1,212 files aimed at “verifying the regularity of the employment relationship” established between digital platforms and their workers, namely couriers, who are carrying out a six-year strike this Friday. hours (starting at 6pm) A protest aimed at demanding better pay and working conditions.

“The platforms did not regularize [a situação] and as the law requires, we sent almost 900 reports to the Public Ministry”, which occurred in November, ACT further explained.

Right now, there are platforms “that have received court decisions ordering them to recognize these workers as their workersas subordinate workers with all legal consequences”, guarantees Maria Fernanda Campos.

The employment relationship of couriers must be recognized

In 2023, the Decent Work Agenda introduced new legislation that recognizes the existence of an employment relationship between digital platforms and couriers.

It was based on this new legislation that ACT announced, in June, the carrying out of inspection actions aimed at couriers and their respective digital platforms.

Although they are treated as independent workers, business professionals delivery (i.e. delivery) often end up comply with the requirements of the subordinate worker.

They have to “obey clear guidelines provided by the platforms” or the “duty to comply with the orders given to them”, explains Maria Fernanda Campos.

It is up to the platform to define the value of what is earned, the time in which the courier must work, as well as defining the consequences if the worker decides to act on their own.

In other words, “the worker does not have the time and the will to carry out and organize his tasks and provide the activity with all his freedom and autonomy”, as would be expected from an independent worker, clarifies the ACT inspector general.

Thus, we are faced with a false independent worker who must recognize an employment relationship with the respective improvements in working conditions, especially because in many cases it affects migrants, who are people who find themselves in a particularly fragile situation.

This leads to improvements “in protection and working conditions with all the benefits that the status of subordinate workers has: holidays, holiday and Christmas bonuses and the eventual application of a collective labor agreement contract”.

The couriers, however, do not necessarily look favorably on ACT’s activity. “They are not there to really know the working conditions, to listen to the worker, the challenges, or what can be improved. They were there to monitor”, criticizes Hans Donner, from the Estafetas Unidos movement, which is organizing the couriers’ strike this Friday.

The recognition of the employment relationship, on the other hand, is seen as a “trap” by this Brazilian courier living in Coimbra. “I find a contract without discussion with the worker and without really understanding what the need is completely illogical,” he points out.

The Working Conditions Authority admits that the law still has to be matured and that there is still a way to go before it becomes effective on the ground