Since the first bonus payment (100 lari, or £21.95) kicks in at 120 deliveries per week, a driver working 20 hours a week would not be eligible for these additional payments. Their take-home income (without including costs) would be roughly 90 lari (£19.75) a week, which amounts to 360 lari (£79) per month. This is if the driver’s rating was kept sufficiently high to access the shifts where the higher number of deliveries per hour were possible, if the wait time at pick-up locations was kept short, and if there were no problems with the Glovo application or customer.
As far as insurance goes, just like most of the Glovo service contract, all the responsibilities rest on the courier while the company profits. Drivers must buy their own vehicles, their own fuel, their own equipment and their own insurance.
Meanwhile, the company charges food or retail providers over 30% on orders placed through the platform and it charges the customers a fee for each order or a monthly membership. There are extra charges if a customer orders under the minimum amount, and all “partners” (courier and food providers) are charged mobile application fees.
It also appears that Glovo does not pay any taxes relating to couriers’ work in Georgia: the latter are classified as independent contractors, and couriers themselves are only required to pay 1% income tax in the country.
According to official filings, the company reported that it did not pay any taxes on profits in 2018 and 2019, due to losses incurred.
This comes in a situation where the company’s limited overhead costs, which are paid largely by drivers, are enviable by any business standards – and the global pandemic has made its existence indispensable, thus increasing revenue.
“We are compliant with all laws and regulations in all the countries in which we operate,” said Glovo. “We can, if required by law, share the exact amounts paid in tax in both 2019 and 2020.”
The spark
Reacting against changes to the bonus system – which clearly incentivises working 80-hour weeks at breakneck speed – and the reality of not being treated as employees, Glovo workers decided to organise.
The initial outrage began last August, when Glovo amended the bonus rates from 130 deliveries per week for a 250 lari (£54) bonus to 180 deliveries for a 350 lari (£76) bonus, and 120 deliveries was switched to a 100 lari bonus.
Drivers told me that it would take 80 hours a week to reach 120 deliveries. Even if they managed to raise their deliveries per hour to an average of two, they would still need to work 60 hours a week to receive bonus pay of 100 lari. In order to qualify for 180 orders – which would be an additional 350 lari – they would need to work 90 hours at two orders per hour minimum. In Georgia, Glovo forbids shifts of more than 12 hours, so drivers must fit 180 deliveries into 84 hours, which means they work 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
The drivers protested, but privately, out of sight of the media and activists. (“I feel like a slave on a ship,” one driver told me at the time.) And in response to these protests, management told drivers: if you don’t like it, leave. Couriers claim that the company subsequently hired hundreds of new drivers afterwards.
Print
Sopiko Japaridze | Radio Free (2021-02-09T23:00:00+00:00) In Tbilisi, delivery drivers learn their power lies in stopping work. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2021/02/09/in-tbilisi-delivery-drivers-learn-their-power-lies-in-stopping-work/
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