Delivery drivers of the world …
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The government is considering establishing a state-run union for delivery drivers that would provide workers in the industry with some basic workplace benefits, Al Mal reports, citing unnamed sources. The body would seek to bring more legal oversight to a huge and largely unregulated informal industry that employs hundreds of thousands of Egyptians.
Members of the proposed union would be covered by the state’s universal health insurance program amid a rise in delivery bike accidents, according to the sources. The union would also seek to regulate the sale of bikes and scooters between companies and drivers in the absence of any current legal oversight of this market.
Delivery drivers across most of the world aren’t unionized: Gig work of all stripes is infamous worldwide for its poor wages and working conditions, lack of benefits, and denial of workers’ rights and unionization attempts. Workers are often categorized as independent contractors rather than employees, allowing big firms to duck responsibility.
A battle is raging in the US over the rights of gig workers, while Chinese delivery workers also lack basic protections — though the state’s union network has called for that to change amid a government crackdown on big tech companies. Meanwhile, the limited food delivery unions that do exist globally are startup collectives without legal status. And when delivery workers at Foodora managed to unionize in Toronto, the company abruptly exited the Canadian market.