Italy : the union Cgil will sue food delivery platform Deliveroo because its algorithm discriminates workers who joined strikes

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On December 18, the three union federations Filt, Filcams and Nidil CGIL communicated to have pressed charges against the food delivery platform Deliveroo at Bologna courthouse. The reason for such decision is the discriminatory nature of the company’s algorithm called ‘Frank’, that is used for developing riders’ reputational ranking. According to the CGIL, the algorithm penalises workers who took sick leaves or joined strikes by progressively reducing their shifts, sometimes even leading to the termination of the contract. ‘Such legal action has no precedents in Europe and also represents the first application of the law n. 128/2019 (see article 11463) recently adopted by the Italian parliament’, declared Carlo De Marchis (CGIL lawyer). Deliveroo rejected the allegations by affirming that the algorithm doesn’t function in that way and therefore no discrimination ever occurred. The first judicial hearing will take place on the 2nd of January 2020.

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