The Working Life Podcast EP5: The Case of the Spanish Riders

For over a decade, Spain's food delivery giants built their business on a the premise that riders were 'collaborators', self-employed and outside the reach of labour law, and responsible for their own risk. That era could now be over for food delivery service riders in Spain. On 15th January 2026, Uber Eats Spain announced it would abandon its hybrid model of employed and self-employed riders in favour of an employees-only structure, following Glovo Spain which made the same move in July 2025. Between them, Spain's two largest platforms have now shifted their entire rider workforce onto contracts of employment, bringing riders fully within the protection of Spanish labour law. In this episode, we are joined by Dr Antonio Garcia Munoz (lecturer in Labour Law at the University of Glasgow) who is interviewed by Donya Jeyabalasingham (IER) on this case study, exploring what drove this dramatic reversal, what it means for riders' working rights, pay, and job security, and what lessons it holds for gig economy regulation elsewhere. For further information, you can read Antonio's blog on this issue here: https://www.ier.org.uk/comments/the-e...