Glovo rider with a child on the handlebars

Over 570,000 platform workers operate in Italy; 70% are employed on freelance or collaboration contracts with no sick-leave, injury or maternity protection.

In 2024 the European Union passed its first directive on platform work: it introduces a legal presumption of employment and imposes transparency on management algorithms. Member states have until 2026 to transpose it.

Between 2019 and 2020 several Italian rulings recognised individual riders' right to the logistics collective contract and to employee status: judicial wins still isolated, but symbolically decisive.