Couriers in\u00a0cities around Italy protest, saying anti-heat ordinances are being ignored while forced breaks are costing them\u00a0lost wages.<\/p>\n
Riders working for Italy’s main food delivery platforms are on strike on Wednesday in Milan, Florence and Bologna, protesting against the lack of financial protection when deliveries are suspended during periods of extreme heat.<\/p>\n
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The stoppage, called by the Nidil Cgil and Filt Cgil unions, will mainly affect couriers working for Glovo and Deliveroo, along with Just Eat riders in Milan.<\/p>\n
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Protests\u00a0<\/p>\n
Riders in Milan will begin their protest at 18.00 with a march setting off from Piazza Duca d’Aosta to Largo Cairoli. In Florence, Glovo and Deliveroo riders will stopp work from 17.00 to 22.00, with a protest bike ride through the city centre.<\/p>\n
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In Bologna, riders are set to gather in Piazza Nettuno at 16.30 for a procession through the city, switching off their delivery apps in protest at what unions called exploitative practices. Riders in the northern Piemonte region were due to join the mobilisation on Thursday 16 July.<\/p>\n
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Heat or hunger<\/p>\n
At the heart of the dispute are regional and municipal ordinances which suspend outdoor delivery work during the hottest hours of the day – typically between 12.30 and 16.00 – on days flagged as high-risk.<\/p>\n
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While intended to protect riders’ health, the measures have a sting in the tail: because most riders are paid per delivery rather than by the hour, a forced pause in service means a direct loss of income.<\/p>\n
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“O moriamo di caldo o moriamo di fame” – we either die of heat or die of hunger – has become a rallying cry among Milan’s riders, along with the question of how they are meant to make it to the end of the month without deliveries.<\/p>\n
Unions<\/p>\n
Unions say the ordinances are, in practice, routinely disregarded. Andrea Bacchin of Nidil Cgil Milan said the unions were demanding tangible solutions from Glovo, Deliveroo and Milan’s prefect: measures that protect riders’ health without depriving them of pay during enforced breaks.<\/p>\n
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He also pointed to a flattening of delivery rates to a uniform \u20ac3 per drop-off regardless of distance, which he said had undercut earlier pledges by platforms to raise pay.<\/p>\n
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Nidil Cgil accused delivery platforms of systematically refusing to negotiate and of ignoring court rulings on pay increases, adding that couriers “cannot pay out of their own pocket the price of climate change”.<\/p>\n
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Wider dispute<\/p>\n
The heat dispute comes against a backdrop of wider tension: Nidil Cgil and UilTemp recently walked away from national contract talks with Confcommercio, Conftrasporto and AssoDelivery after four rounds of negotiations, saying platforms had refused to budge on recognising continuous riders as employees, ending piece-rate pay, and other core demands.<\/p>\n
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Glovo and Deliveroo were placed under judicial supervision by Milan prosecutors earlier this year as part of an investigation into exploitative labour practices (caporalato).<\/p>\n
Workers’ rights<\/p>\n
Riders are also pressing broader demands: pay based on hours worked rather than per delivery, including time spent waiting or travelling between orders, and access to Italy’s wage-support scheme (ammortizzatori sociali) during periods when deliveries are halted because of heat.<\/p>\n
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The centre-left Partito Democratico’s Arturo Scotto, who chairs the party’s labour committee in the chamber of deputies, urged the government to review its heat-related wage support scheme, which he said excludes riders altogether and has halved available funds compared with last year.<\/p>\n
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The Movimento 5 Stelle’s Dario Carotenuto has tabled an amendment to extend the heat-related “Cassa integrazione guadagni” fund to riders.<\/p>\n
Labour ministry<\/p>\n
Wednesday’s protests follow a series of heatwave-related incidents across the country, with red alerts in place in Florence, Perugia, Brescia and Turin, and temperatures locally exceeding 38\u00b0C.<\/p>\n
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The stoppage was intended as a prelude to a meeting at the labour ministry in Rome on Thursday, where unions pressed the government to apply existing wage-support schemes to delivery workers.<\/p>\n
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Labour minister Marina Calderone said a new directive addressing the sector was close to being approved by the council of ministers, as part of Italy’s implementation of EU platform-work rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n