Angi, a delivery person for three years on various home delivery platforms, has developed during this period a whole series of strategies aimed entirely at appearing as discreet as possible to avoid situations of harassment. She tries to keep a low profile and, in some cases, to be elusive: she does not go to meeting points where the rest of the population gathers. ridersactively seeks to wear clothes that go as unnoticed as possible and has already studied in which cases he can have a relaxed attitude with the client in question and in which he should practically not speak to him. “As you can see in the photo that it’s a woman who is going to come, obviously some customers are already opening the door in another way, and they can do it without clothes.” He claims that dozens of men received him half-naked, in their underwear.
“When they greet you without clothes or with that kind of attitude, I don’t say anything at all. I mark my distance, give them their order and leave immediately. I try not to even look at them. It’s very hard to work like rider being both a migrant and a woman, especially when dealing with these types of people who want to humiliate you. She says she knows of many cases, which her colleagues have told her about, in which one of their accounts has been “rented” by a boy – “renting” an account to someone whose situation in the country is regularized is the way many workers who are not able to work on these platforms.
In these kinds of occasions, the customer often sees a photo of the person who rents the account (for example a woman), but the person who arrives at the house is a man: “So there are customers who come out of this suggestive way. , but when they see that the person who will deliver your order is a boy, they get frustrated and change their attitude. This happens very often,” he says.
Nuria Soto also worked as rider for various industry platforms. Drawing on his experiences, he founded the Mensakas cooperative – which promotes a distribution model “within the social and solidarity economy” –. He specifies that “these cases are not as isolated as one might think. Almost every rider can talk about a situation like this. By not accepting their suggestion, Soto explains, they sometimes give them a bad rating on the platform to “punish” them. In the cooperative, they created a gender commission to resolve these problems.
One time I went to deliver and there were guys smoking marijuana, all in their underwear, and they told me I had to serve them food at the table, that I had to come in.
Yuly, rider
It also happened to Yuly, a former delivery driver. “There are very violent men. One time I went to deliver and there were guys smoking marijuana, all in their underwear, and they told me I had to serve them food at the table, that I had to come in. I told them, ‘pay me and I’ll give you your food,'” he said. Another time a customer received it completely naked.
It also happens that the customer starts writing to them through the platform: “You call them to let them know that you are going to deliver the order, then they start writing to you and saying things like: “You” “You are pretty , I’m interested in you, we’re going to go out,” he said.
“Meeting points”, potentially hostile places
But unpleasant situations do not stop at the exit from residential areas, but continue where men and women riders They are located to wait to receive orders – these are generally areas of high demand. This is why Angi, he explains, tries not to surround himself with anyone. “I am always alone. I try to avoid crowds riders. I do it on purpose to avoid these things, because if you arrive at a restaurant and they are all gathered there, you feel like they are already looking at you or starting to talk to each other while looking at you.
“There are situations that happen with our own colleagues,” explains Nuria, who says she feels “helpless”.
Given the harassing attitudes of colleagues, since you are not in a workplace and they are not officially considered colleagues, there is no possibility of initiating any procedure. It leaves you a little helpless.
Nuria Soto
— Rider and one of the founders of the Mensakas cooperative
However, they do not feel protected. “Situations have arisen with certain colleagues who may not have been very right. Attitudes so uncomfortable that, for example, a classmate and I had to be forced to block another classmate because he was becoming obsessed or another who turned his head away when we were going to give him two kisses,” says he. “Given these attitudes, since you are not in a workplace and they are not officially considered colleagues, there is no possibility of starting any process. “It leaves you a little defenseless in that sense,” she laments.
Other areas of public space also become hostile, as highlighted by the delivery woman, who says that cars often harass her on the road through harassment, intimidation, shouting or spitting and, she claims , almost 100%. attitudes are manifested on the part of men. During her career, only one woman showed hostile attitudes towards her on the road: “We talk about the fact that we are in a hyper-masculinized sector and that we carry out an activity considered mainly for men, occupying the public space all the time. all day. All of this makes our business more difficult because of all the types of comments you may encounter, from the loudest to the most paternalistic.
Among the four midwives interviewed by elDiario.es, one, Sara (fictitious name because she wishes to remain anonymous), states that she has not noticed “a difference in treatment due to gender on the part of clients”, although explaining that this perception could be attributed to the fact that she usually works via accounts rentedUsually boys, so their profile picture appears.
Powerless due to lack of protocols
“The fact of not having a workplace, an equality plan, an anti-harassment protocol or a series of things that correspond to the recognition of the employment relationship, this affects us more, the workers,” denounces the founder of Mensakas.
One of the main disadvantages of the platform economy, they all say, is not having someone to turn to if problems arise. “Support never responds.” If we do not start by tackling the “visible tip of the iceberg” of the problem, namely, according to them, poor working conditions, we will not be able to solve everything in depth, they explain, and they defend that ‘A simple measure that could be applied to reduce the number of cases of harassment would be to stop showing the profile photo or gender of the riders since, they argue, “it’s not that important.”
According to the report produced in 2020 by the Catalan workers’ commissions, Delivery drivers and digital platform delivery people: working conditions, needs, requirements and perspectives61% of runners surveyed (including 6 out of 10 men) admit to having been victims of discrimination or sexism simply because they were women.
