New York, NY – Food delivery apps have undoubtedly made our lives easier. With a simple click of a button on our smartphones, we can have dinner delivered right to our doors, .
But with these convenient, modern apps, it can be easy to forget that there is a human being on the other side of it working tirelessly to make it happen—the delivery workers. These apps don’t show the dangerous traffic conditions they face, the attackers and thieves they may confront along their route, the lack of basic workplace protections they have, or the low pay they earn.
This is why New York City passed new, groundbreaking protections to promote better working conditions in the food delivery industry. Under the new laws, delivery workers who deliver restaurant orders for third-party food delivery apps are now able to control how far they are willing to travel, know the details of routes and addresses before accepting a delivery order, get paid at least once a week, and be provided with a free insulated delivery bag after six deliveries. And there’s more to come still – later this year our agency will issue new minimum pay standards to ensure just pay for this essential work.
These protections apply to all app-based food delivery workers regardless of immigration status. Delivery workers can use the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) as a resource to access information about their rights or to file a complaint by visiting nyc.gov/DeliveryApps or calling 311 and saying ‘delivery worker.’
Vilda Vera Mayuga is the Commissioner for the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Learn more about DWCP’s Office of Labor Policy & Standards—NYC’s central resource for workers—at nyc.gov/workers.
