Motoboys want to discuss labor rights and CLT with the Lula government

Motoboys, motodelivery workers and motorcycle couriers want to sit down with the Lula 3 government to discuss the category’s rights.

Last week, 23 unions forwarded a request for an audience to the president and the new Minister of Labor, Luiz Marinho. In this, the motoboys gathered under the Application Deliverers Alliance also send their meeting request.

Marinho’s nods that a work regulation through applications should have a proposal later this semester, left couriers on alert, especially the self-employed. Even a strike was called for the 25th of January by the alliance. Leaders from 15 states had already confirmed their participation.

The target, according to Edgar Francisco da Silva, the Gringo, president of Amabr (Association of Autonomous and App Mobility Drivers in Brazil), is not the new government, it’s the apps. The group led by Gringo wants the guarantee that any negotiation on regulation has room for the self-employed.

“We don’t want trade union centrals or unions speaking for us, they don’t represent us. If the Minister of Labor and the apps don’t answer us, we’ll go to the streets to demand our rights”, he says.

The Application Deliverers Alliance brings together almost 30 people, all men, who are seen as leaders among those working in the sector.

Some, like Gringo, are linked to formalized entities, others are figures who ended up becoming a reference among couriers, even if they don’t lead a group, association or union, like youtuber Ralf Elisário, from the channel Ralf MT, or Paulo Lima, Galo , of the Antifascist Deliveries.

In the note they sent this week, they say they see “with good eyes the initiative” of minister Luiz Marinho, of “setting our fight as one of the main themes of the ministry”. However, they say, “we understand the announced measures to be hasty” on the work of couriers.

The CLT (Consolidation of Labor Laws) is one of the central points of the dispute between unionized and self-employed motoboys from various groups. The unions do not give up formalization, but in the other groups, the mandatory registration in the portfolio is not a consensus.

Gringo, from Amabr, defends that the application and inspection of the federal and municipal laws (in the case of São Paulo) that deal with the motorcycle freight activity would already be enough to improve working conditions, provide safety to the motoboys and social security protection, as they become de facto autonomous and not just informal.

These norms have a series of requirements for those who work using the motorcycle. You must be over 21 years old, have at least two years of driver’s license, take a specialized course and drive wearing a retro-reflective vest.

In relation to delivery applications, the president of Amabr argues that they require compliance with these parameters. “They use people without training and without social protection and it is society that pays”, he says. The work portfolio, in his assessment, no longer responds to the needs of this work model.

The application of the laws that deal with the motorcycle freight service could remove occasional couriers from the applications, those who only use the platforms as an income supplement. This is because one of the requirements of the legislation is the use of the trunk – backpacks or bags are prohibited.

Gilberto Almeida dos Santos, president of Sindomoto-SP (São Paulo motorcycle courier union) and the national council of entities representing the sector, says that the group wants to propose collective bargaining and demands the hiring of all couriers with a formal contract and the payment of an additional 30% on the base salary for being a dangerous activity.

The union also advocates for the application of federal and local laws. At another point of convergence between self-employed workers and unions, both are against the activities of logistics operators, the so-called OLs, used by iFood, the main application in the food delivery segment.

Ricardo Patah, president of UGT (General Union of Workers), the trade union central to which delivery and driver unions are linked, says he spoke to Minister Marinho on the day of his inauguration, on January 3, when he asked for priority in scheduling these meetings .

“I’ve been telling Gil [do sindicato] that while the conversation with companies is not pacified, our concern is with people’s lives. Precarious work is easily perceived in these activities”, he says.

The president of the trade union central defends that the discussion of the regulation of these activities should also have an arm of qualification and training and the protection of specific regulatory norms (NRs) for this type of work, as was done a few years ago in the bakery sector. He remembers that accidents were frequent among those who operated heavy machinery.

On the day he took office, Luiz Marinho said that the regulation will need to “ensure civilized standards for the use of these tools”. During the campaign and even during the government transition, the Lula 3 government team defended the creation of protection rules, but did not hit the hammer on the mandatory formalization through the CLT.

The two main entities that represent applications, the MID (Digital Innovation Movement), which brings together more than 150 companies such as Rappi, 99, Loggi, Zé Delivery and Lalamove, and Amobitec, which represents names such as iFood, Uber and Amazon, participated in conversations with Lula’s campaign and say they are open to moving forward in the debate on rules for the sector.