Uber Eats Facing Criminal Charges in Italy: Are We Managers or Corporals?

Summary

On May 29, breaking news hit the front pages of the Italian major newspapers. According to these sources, the Milan Tribunal had placed Uber Eats Italy under special administration over alleged gangmastering offences. The company’s food delivery business is alleged to have been using small firms to recruit vulnerable migrant workers and asylum seekers, through practices that have been associated with the notorious model of “caporalato” (i.e. “unlawful labour intermediation and exploitation”). Even if the investigation started in 2019, the sanitary crisis seems to have exacerbated the harshness of these work schemes, thus leading the magistrates to intervene by replacing the heads of the local team with a specially appointed managing director.