- Labor flexibility and genuine employment, two issues that are being debated around the world from the growth of food delivery app couriers.
- Companies like Uber Eats, DiDi Food and Rappi are growing hand in hand with the changing habits of current consumers, who have become much more digital after the pandemic.
- According to Inegi, 629,000 people in Mexico lost their jobs as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, many of them looking for an alternative in delivery applications.
Throughout the world, job options linked to the distribution of products, especially food, have grown unchecked in the last decade. From Argentina to Mexico, Latin America is no exception.
In Mexico, the employment options through applications are home food delivery services, such as Uber Eats, DiDi Food and Rappi, they grew exponentially, especially after the pandemic.
The “boom” goes hand in hand with the increase in digital shopping habits left by the pandemic. According to information from the Mexican Sales Association On-linethe health crisis digitized Mexicans in such a way that 83 percent of Internet users already use a delivery app.
Of that universe, 75 percent order food; 60 percent order grocery items; 52 percent ship; and almost half acquires some medication.
But the system has a flaw: job insecurity.
While drivers can work the days and times they prefer, the need to add income means that they must do it more hours than the legal ones and, at the same time, without any kind of state control.
The quality of life does not seem to go hand in hand with this kind of jobs.
At least, this is what is being debated from the republication of a photograph of two delivery men taking a nap in the middle of the street while waiting for a new customer to deliver their orders to.
The publication of the photo taken in 2019 by Tiago Queiroz was made on Twitter by the doctor in Social Sciences Cora Gamarnik during the last weekend.
Photo by Tiago Queiroz
Rapi shelters against labor flexibility pic.twitter.com/t4SaCyypKT— Cora Gamarnik (@coragamarnik) July 30, 2022
“Rappi, shelters against labor flexibility,” he wrote next to the image of the delivery men under a statue on the street, and the discussion multiplied.
The role of the State, taxes, free choice, the drama of security, are some of the points on which the debate revolved.
Distributors “naked” in the face of the crisis
“Sociologists see exploitation in anything that requires effort,” one netizen began. “I recommend the movie Arturo and the algorithm, a very good comedy that shows us the cruelty of these apps and the advancement of technology, leaving people more and more cornered,” said another.
“We all want them to improve the quality of life of workers; but only you believe that this is achieved by stealing money from them through taxes, forcing them to pay themselves ‘social rights’, or prohibiting the hiring of those who can provide less labor value. It’s absurd,” said a third in the Twitter thread that opened around the photograph.
“Of course, because serial tax evaders like delivery apps are completely innocent in this case. Poor people, they have no choice but to suppress basic labor rights for their workers, and flee their profits to tax havens”, they replied.
Beyond the debate that was generated, the interesting thing is to see how from a photograph, which is not new (but from 2019), debates can be triggered on social networks.
A good community managerAs long as you have a content strategy behind it (a brand cannot tweet any photo without first analyzing its impact), you can think of this kind of content to generate conversation.
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