Brazilian government wants new round of labor negotiations for delivery workers

Brazilian Labor Minister Luiz Marinho said on Wednesday the government will request a new round of negotiations with food and merchandise delivery apps in order to draft a bill with regulations for gig workers.

Earlier this month, the federal government submitted a bill to Congress with new regulations and labor protections for drivers of ride-hailing apps such as Uber, but the draft does not include workers for food delivery platforms.

“We will start a new round of talks with the companies, we will call them and offer the opportunity to see if their talk about accepting negotiations is real,” Mr. Marinho said in a radio interview. “It’s the case of iFood, for example.”

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has publicly chastised iFood, Brazil’s leading food delivery platform, for allegedly refusing to agree to negotiations. The draft legislation was initially supposed to include rules for food delivery apps.

“The delivery platforms in practice ended up breaking the negotiation process,” Mr. Marinho said today. “I hold [them] entirely responsible. They need to return to the table.”

Mr. Marinho emphasized that the bill submitted two weeks ago is the result of a working group with representatives of drivers and app companies, rather than authored by the federal government alone. He added that it “was not easy” to get Uber and 99 to negotiate and agree to a proposal. Uber publicly supports the bill.

Mr. Marinho also said that iFood disagreed with the social security expenses proposed by the government.

iFood did not immediately reply to The Brazilian Report for comment. The company previously said the government gave priority to ride-hail apps, but did not touch on the subject of social security expenses.

The bill on ride-hail apps has not yet been assigned a rapporteur in the House — the lawmaker in charge of presenting the report to be voted on.

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