March 29, 2024
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On Thursday, New York’s city council passed a several bills providing new rights and protections for food delivery workers. Mayor DeBlasio has previously expressed support for the provisions and is expected to sign them into law without delay.

Now the new bill don’t address every danger faced by those workers, but they establish many long-sought protections. One measure requires most restaurants to let delivery workers use their bathrooms and institutes fines for bars and restaurants that refuse access.

Here are some of the protections in the bills that delivery services will need to abide by:

  • Drivers can set a maximum distance per trip they travel.
  • Food delivery apps can’t charge couriers for payment of their wages, and they have to pay delivery workers at least once a week.
  • Drivers can choose not to accept trips over bridges or in tunnels.
  • Apps need to provide the driver, before a trip begins, with the food pickup location, the destination, and the estimated time and distance.
  • Delivery services can’t charge drivers or couriers for insulated bags to deliver food.
  • Food delivery apps can’t solicit a tip unless they disclose how much is paid to the delivery worker, and whether or not it’s available immediately or paid in cash.
  • Apps have to credit gratuities to workers and notify how much was added and if a customer removed the tip and why.
  • Applications have to inform the delivery worker of the total compensation, including gratuities, daily.
  • Food delivery services need to add a provision in contracts with restaurants that let couriers use bathrooms if the courier is picking up a delivery.

One bill requires the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to complete a study on food delivery workers and establish rules on the minimum payment required per trip.

The bills are the result of sustained organizing by Los Deliveristas Unidos, a group organizing delivery workers as part of the Worker’s Justice Project. The group rallied at City Hall in April and has been pushing the mayor and city council for months to take action on these issues.

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