"Overworked and unable to quit: Delivery drivers in Brazil found something worse than gig work", 05 July 2023

...Guilherme spends between 12 and 14 hours a day, every day of the week, on his bike delivering orders...Though he delivers food ordered on Brazil’s largest last-mile delivery app, iFood, he isn’t a gig worker; he works for a subcontractor hired by iFood to manage workers on its behalf. Guilherme became a subcontracted delivery worker because of the promise of stable hours and pay — but like many other such drivers, he faces unmanageable amounts of work that he said he cannot afford to refuse...

...According to iFood’s own statistics, 25% of its delivery drivers are subcontracted workers, hired through companies like CR Express, which operates in 13 of Brazil’s 26 states and is one of the biggest delivery-driver subcontracting firms in the country...

Once they’ve signed on with a subcontractor, delivery drivers do not become formal employees, but the way they interact with the iFood platform changes. They are only able to log into the delivery app during pre-approved shifts assigned by the subcontracting company. Managers allocate shifts to delivery workers over a separate messaging app, usually WhatsApp or Telegram. Drivers can sign up for one or more four-hour shifts a day — however, delivery workers subcontracted by companies including Dafi, MX Delivery, and Caetano Enterprise told Rest of World that in practice, they’re expected to take on at least three such shifts a day, or risk not getting one at all. 

A spokesperson for iFood told Rest of World the company has no say over how subcontracting firms work or how they recruit their workers, but that iFood contractually requires them to respect the legal labor rights of their workers. IFood also confirmed subcontractors are afforded some priority over gig workers when assigning deliveries. Rest of World reached out to subcontracting companies for comment, but did not receive a reply by the time of publication...

According to Nina Desgranges, a social scientist and researcher with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), the subcontracting system acts as a disguise for what is clearly a formal employer-employee relationship, without giving workers proper compensation or rights...

Drivers implied they were making more than what they had made as gig workers, but attributed this to the fact that they were being forced to work hours that would be illegal if they were formally hired employees...