Food delivery riders spend their workdays dodging all kinds of hazards. They race through traffic, forever on deadline to deliver poke bowls and pizzas for only a few euros per ride. But this summer in Europe, successive heat waves added to the challenges that already make them some of the gig economy’s most vulnerable workers.
The riders have been on the front lines, dripping with sweat as they cycle on scorching asphalt, struggling to stay hydrated and to keep the phones that are key to their business working in the heat.
And in some places, like Rome, they suffered twice: first from cycling in searing temperatures, then by not being allowed to do so, as concerned officials banned work during the hottest hours of the hottest days.
For the moment, the worst of the heat in Rome has ebbed, but temperatures are expected to rise again next week in other cities, like Palermo, Sicily. And the problem of more severe heat seems unlikely to go away anytime soon as the planet warms.
In recent weeks, we spoke to several riders, some in Rome and some in Palermo, where outdoor work was allowed to continue unabated.
The riders, many of whom in Rome are not native Italians, often work freelance, with no paid vacation or sick days. This year, that included no pay for freelancers during the government-mandated heat breaks. So for many of them, a rule meant to protect their health undercut their livelihoods.
In Rome since early July, Italy’s National Research Council has deemed more than 30 days “high risk” for outdoor workers, including construction workers. On those days, delivery riders had to stop work during the lunch rush, from 12:30 to 4 p.m., leaving them to rely mostly on dinner deliveries.
For Kamran Khan, a delivery rider in Rome, that meant that instead of carrying lunches to polished apartments in the upscale Parioli neighborhood, he had to wait around for the temperatures to fall, losing money all the while.
Mr. Khan, 30, a Pakistani, said that as a foreigner who had not fully mastered Italian, working as a delivery rider was one of the few options available to him to make money to help support his 14-member extended family back home.
During the worst of the heat waves, he said, he made only 25 or 30 euros a day, or about $30 to $35, about half of what he made before the heat rules went into effect.
“It’s very hot,” Mr. Khan said, “but I also need and want to work.”
Other riders agreed, saying they had urgent financial needs and few other job opportunities. Several riders said they appreciated the freedom granted by the work. Now, the few euros they earned from every delivery was often their main preoccupation, overtaking concerns about health or safety.
“Everyone thinks that with this heat, we will not work,” Mohammad Hassnain, 28, a delivery worker in Rome originally from Pakistan, said on a particularly brutal day in July. “But we have families, we have financial difficulties. So we will do work.”
He said the money he made on extremely hot days, about €20 to €30, was less than he needed to pay his monthly rent and bills.
In Rome, the regional president explained the reasoning for the work stoppages, saying that keeping exposed workers from working in the worst heat was “not only a common sense measure, but an act of responsibility.”
But some unionists say there are better fixes, like having the food delivery companies provide more secure contracts so riders are compensated even if they have to stop work. One of the companies, Just Eat, has started hiring delivery riders as employees in Italy, but many others have not.
“Rents don’t go down when temperatures go up,” said Francesco Brugnone, a union representative in Palermo. “If the riders stop working in the hottest hours of the day, they earn nothing,” he added. “It’s a very complicated and delicate problem.”
Regional authorities there did not mandate a work stoppage during the heat waves. A delivery worker said that he suffered from headaches from riding in the heat. Another that his phone battery ran out much faster under the blazing sun.
Alessio Celestino, the secretary general of Assodelivery, the association of food delivery companies in Italy, said in an email that its members take several measures to protect their workers in the heat, including by providing training, information, and protective equipment.
Still, the introduction of a new heat-related measure by one of them attracted criticism, highlighting the complexity of the issue. This summer Glovo, a Spanish company popular in Italy, introduced a bonus payment this summer for workers who delivered during the hottest hours.
Riders were promised a 2 percent bonus for each delivery made when temperatures were 90 to 97 degrees Fahrenheit (32 to 36 Celsius), 4 percent when they were 97 and 104, and 8 percent if it got even hotter than that.
Unions criticized Glovo for providing the workers with incentives — however small — to expose themselves to dangerous working conditions.
“It sends the message that money buys everything, even people’s health,” Natale Di Cola, the secretary general of Cgil, Italy’s largest labor union, told the Italian news agency Ansa.
Glovo said in a statement that the payment, which it stopped after the backlash, “was intended to be a compensatory measure, not an incentive.”
Instead, when temperatures hit 90 degrees, it introduced a subsidy for the purchase of water, mineral salts and water bottles. But a judge in Milan ruled in a case supported by unions that the subsidies were insufficient, and that riders should also be provided more protective equipment, including caps and sunglasses. The judge also mandated a 30 cent bonus for each delivery made when temperatures were above 77 degrees.
Dario Distaso, a rider in Palermo, said that the mineral salts Glovo provided help, but sometimes, like last week, when temperatures hit 98 degrees, it was so hot, it felt like “the air was on fire.”
“I felt like a duck inside an oven,” he said. Still, he added, “We never stop.”
Emma Bubola is a Times reporter based in Rome.
Monika Čvorak is a senior video journalist based in London.
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