[HN Gopher] Glovo lays off 6% of staff following fresh fine from...
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       Glovo lays off 6% of staff following fresh fine from Spanish
       government
        
       Author : schnitzelstoat
       Score  : 32 points
       Date   : 2023-01-30 10:56 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (sifted.eu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (sifted.eu)
        
       | jeoqn wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
         | Bayart wrote:
         | Not the Stalinist flavour.
        
         | wittycardio wrote:
         | [dead]
        
         | anthk wrote:
         | "Communist". More like euro-Communist. Plain social-democrats.
        
           | miguelxt wrote:
           | Not in this case. The social democrats would be another party
           | (PSOE). She is part of the Communist Party of Spain, a
           | Marxist-Leninist party. They are part of the government in
           | coalition with PSOE (through Izquierda Unida and Podemos,
           | both hard-left parties).
        
             | anthk wrote:
             | I an from Spain. PSOE is not Social Democrat party since
             | long ago. It's a progressive center party.
             | 
             | The actual Social Democrats are from IU/Podemos.
        
               | unity1001 wrote:
               | Having adopted socially progressive issues does not make
               | IU or Podemos less communist. As in the name - United
               | Left. They unite everyone from Anarcho syndicalists to
               | Marxist-Leninist. That's a communist party, a united
               | front like how the united front was invented 100 years
               | ago at the turn of the century.
        
               | anthk wrote:
               | I repeat, I'm from Spain. I know perfectly my politics.
               | Actual commies, the Marxist-Leninist ones do not stay
               | aside with Izquierda Unida. Even less with Podemos.
        
           | unity1001 wrote:
           | The European 'united front' type parties include all
           | communist varieties and they are not social democrats. They
           | include everyone from Anarcho Syndicalists to Stalinists to
           | Maoists to plain Marxist-Leninists and all the other
           | varieties.
           | 
           | For social democrats, you look at center-left (or actually,
           | center) parties. They use the name 'socialist' in the name.
           | Whenever you see one, you are looking at centrist social
           | democrats.
           | 
           | The reason why this left coalition with majority centrists is
           | able to do pro-people reforms and fight big money is because
           | the communist coalition partner is pushing hard for it. (And
           | also all of these was signed in the pre-coalition agreement).
           | 
           | So its probably the most successful left wing government in
           | West Europe in the last 40 yeras for that reason. They were
           | able to pass major reforms ranging from the labor reform that
           | now protects 'contractors' to raising the minimum wage two
           | times, from rent control to the new minimum income law among
           | many others. I totally did not expect that they would be able
           | to succeed in that much. It was quite a surprise.
        
             | anthk wrote:
             | Not with Izquierda Unida since Eurocommunism and PSOE's
             | shift to the right since Suresnes.
             | 
             | If any, a Marxist would vote them as the "least wrong"
             | choice.
        
           | bradhe wrote:
           | Eh, in some places (Portugal, for instance) it means, like,
           | actual communist. Sometimes even financed by the Russian
           | party.
        
         | lakomen wrote:
         | Sounds like communism is a good thing after all
        
       | Laaas wrote:
       | For context, Spain is also very unfriendly to ridesharing
       | services like Uber AFAIK.
        
         | lm28469 wrote:
         | Most of western europe actually, but it's not so much about XYZ
         | services but more about saying your employees aren't employees
         | but contractors so you can skip taxes and other annoying things
         | like sick leaves, unemployment benefits, &c.
        
           | MomoXenosaga wrote:
           | Yes but Uber is a Trojan horse for importing American style
           | capitalism. The tide is slowly turning for neoliberalism.
        
         | spaceman_2020 wrote:
         | In my country, Uber promised drivers sky high wages, offered
         | cheap credit, and encouraged them to buy cars on loan and drive
         | for Uber full time.
         | 
         | Of course, the income started going down once the incentives
         | were removed. Drivers could not pay their loans and got their
         | vehicles repossessed. Sit in a Uber in my city and you'll not
         | hear a single driver say anything good about Uber.
         | 
         | Sure, I know that drivers should have known what they were
         | doing, but if your business model depends on exploiting
         | desperate, poorly educated workers by dangling shiny golden
         | carrots (all with a slick presentation and weapons grade
         | persuasion), then maybe your business can f itself.
        
         | jmorenoamor wrote:
         | Not the services themselves but their job model. JustEst is
         | pretty popular, has a somewhat nice model and does not have
         | problems with the laws.
         | 
         | Glovo is trying to install a job model that does not fit our
         | view of what the relation on employer and employee should be,
         | and because of that has been fined several times.
         | 
         | The case for Uber or Cabify is a bit different. There is a well
         | established Taxi guild which will fight to keep others from
         | taking part of their business, and in that case, each region
         | makes their own decissions and regulations, not the central
         | government.
        
         | sschueller wrote:
         | I love how we now label breaking a countries laws as it being
         | "unfriendly". /s
        
           | spaceman_2020 wrote:
           | those damn workers rights and labor laws getting in the way
           | of creating shareholder value once again!
        
       | mindracer wrote:
       | > Glovo is appealing both fines and told Sifted that today's
       | layoffs are not connected to the penalties.
       | 
       | So nothing to do with the fine
        
         | GauntletWizard wrote:
         | If you'll take that at face value, I've got a bridge in
         | Brooklyn to sell you.
        
       | schnitzelstoat wrote:
       | Title taken from article. I'm not sure if the layoffs are related
       | to the fines so much as the general economic environment though.
        
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       (page generated 2023-01-30 23:02 UTC)