There's been a massive growth in the sector, but it hasn't been a fast growth in improvement in workers' conditions.

So I think we're going to see a lot more actions when it comes to food delivery workers.

Hello. Hello and welcome to Tech Won't Save Us.

I'm your host, Paris Marks, and today my guest is Ben Ray.

Ben is a coordinator at the gig economy project and a freelance journalist who's written for a number of publications, including Tribune and Jacobin.

He lives in the Basque Country in the north of Spain.

As part of this month's series on the gig economy around the world, I talked to Ben about what's

been happening in Europe with the gig economy and gig economy workers because there have been

a number of stories recently of developments and things happening in Europe

that I think are worth discussing. And so in this conversation, we touch on the Riders Law that was

passed in Spain. That not only said food delivery workers are employees, but importantly,

gave unions access to the algorithms behind these apps so they can properly bargain

on behalf of the workers. There are also strikes and protests that have been happening around

the continent and rulings on the status of workers. The European Commission is also putting

together regulations of its own that would govern the gig economy across the European Union and that could

be really significant for workers or at the same time it could be a step backward if those

regulations reflect what the gig companies want to see. So we cover a lot of ground in this conversation

but I think it'll give you a good overview of what's been happening in Europe

in particular. And I would note that we don't talk a whole lot about what's been happening in the

UK because I'll have a specific interview on what's been happening there later in this

interview series. I should also point out, you know, before we get into the interview, I have found that

the gig economy project is a

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