The Bologna alternative to the food delivery rider contract

Thanks to the Bologna card, the Mymenu platform applies an increase in hourly payment, right on the day the Assodelivery-Ugl agreement comes into force

A Mymenu delivery boy (photo: Mymenu) Two years ago his carta has been a pioneer in Italy in protecting the rights of digital workers. And now the Municipality of Bologna is trying again. With an alternative route to the delivery service contract signed in mid-September by Assodelivery, the federation that brings together the main food delivery apps, and the Ugl union.

The contract of discord

That deal has been in the sights for weeks. On 30 October in 20 cities the riders went on strike against, supported by independent groups, Nidil Cgil and Uil, while the Ministry of Labor, after a letter of fire on the conditions of that contract which was followed by weeks of silence, set a meeting November 11 with trade unions and Assodelivery to unravel the problem. In the meantime, the delivery men who have not adapted to the rules signed by Deliveroo, Glovo, Uber Eats, Just Eat and Social Food, are out of the game. Without signing the agreement with Ugl, the collaboration is lost.

Bologna is trying another way. Right on the day the apps put their contract into effect, November 3, a 2019 rule becomes active. Decree 128 provides that the remuneration of food delivery messengers is adequate to the minimum tables of the collective agreements in the sector. What Mymenu, a home delivery startup, one of the two platforms that signed the Bologna Charter (with Domino's Pizza) is doing at the moment.

Mymenu's move

The group has aligned the compensation of its 500 riders to the minimum logistic tables, the same model that the unions look to to build a specific contract for food delivery . "It goes from 6.5 euros per hour to 8.8", explains Mymenu's CEO, Edoardo Tribuzio. The company applies hourly payments, in spite of the delivery payments maintained in the Assodelivery-Ugl contract and censored by the ministry.

In addition, as required by the Bologna charter, surcharges are provided for work on holidays or when there is bad weather and forms of incentives, however, parameterized on a lineup of orders to avoid a breakneck race to make the largest number of deliveries. Finally, explains Tribuzio, "benefits will be introduced for all riders at workshops or other exercises useful for the maintenance of their vehicles and formulas of contribution to functional expenses for the activity will be maintained for the riders who are more engaged with Mymenu than other platforms or other uses. of their time ".

" Despite the alignment towards bearish policies carried out by international competitors, we follow our mission with the hope that customers, restaurants and the public administration will prove increasingly ready to enhance our work " , comments Tribuzio. And he remembers that Mymenu himself had led a branch contrary to the one that later coalesced in Assodelivery during the first meetings to give the riders a contract.

The knots to be cliffed

Not everything is Resolved. Some deliverymen are calling for a step towards stabilization as subordinates. Road that Tribuzio does not exclude. “We are not new to hiring, which we pursued years ago, only to collide with the workers' demand for flexibility - he says -. We renew our availability with those workers available for a position that will be more rigid on working hours and shift management ".

The other signer of the Bolognese charter, Domino's Pizza, is also under the lens. Tommaso Falchi, spokesman for the autonomous company Riders Union Bologna, explains that "if the employee classification suits us, the remuneration for us does not respect the minimum tables". The confrontation is open. As well as the battle over the Ugl-Assodelivery contract. "We will go to court to prove that this is not a collective agreement", Falchi announces.

The Bolognese laboratory

"While fraudulent agreements - passed off as collective agreements - are signed at the national level legitimize the further sale of the rights of the messengers operating in the major multinationals in the sector, the Charter demonstrates that it is possible to obtain decent contracts without affecting the economic sustainability of the service by the platforms ”, continues Falchi. Signed on 31 May 2018, the agreement promoted by the Bolognese Municipality has regulated many of the critical issues of the gig economy, including transparency in contracts, compensation for night work, trade union rights and portability of the rating, and remains the only agreement between platforms. trade unions and public administrations that managed to produce some concrete results for the messengers.

For Marco Lombardo, councilor for labor of the Municipality of Bologna, the charter "promotes a new culture of digital work in our country". So far, the largest platforms have snubbed it, saying they are awaiting national rules, only to then surprisingly sign a contract in the midst of negotiations still underway at the Ministry of Labor. "I hope that fair competition on the food delivery market can be based on innovation, service quality and safety, not on the (lower) cost of labor", Lombardo says, while Palazzo Accursio is studying health protection tools of delivery men, as serological tests, in view of the increase in orders caused by the lockdown measures.