The Ministry of Public Labor (MPT) in São Paulo has filed a lawsuit against ride-hailing platform Uber over the lack of support points for the app’s drivers. The general civil suit seeks to ensure clean bathrooms, drinking water and a safe place to rest and eat, as well as compensation for moral damages in the amount of R$10 million.
The MPT investigation heard from app drivers, who said they had spent hours without being able to go to the bathroom. Some of them revealed that they developed diseases, such as urinary tract infections, due to the lack of support points. “One worker reported needing to carry water from home and ended up drinking it hot because there was nowhere to change water during the day,” the agency says.
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It is worse for women, who, according to the operation, do not have a safe place to change sanitary pads. Furthermore, some workers revealed that the few existing stations “often refuse use or do not provide minimum hygiene conditions.”
MPT proposes partnerships with restaurants
An expert report prepared by an occupational safety analyst confirmed that the spaces designated by Uber as support points “are not intended for resting workers, but rather for organizing service queues, in addition to having a structure directed only to internal employees, without including drivers and delivery workers,” MPT reported.
MPT calls for signing partnerships with restaurants, markets and pharmacies to ensure free use of bathrooms and drivers’ access to drinking water. If convicted, the agency requires Uber to pay a fine of R$100,000 for each assembly point or place where adequate support was not provided.
What does Uber say?
In a note to CapitalsUber do Brasil stated that it did not have access to the measure and considered that, based on what was reported to the press, it lacked a minimum legal basis. “Once notified of the commencement of legal proceedings, the company will present all elements necessary to prove that MPT’s allegations are based on a misunderstanding about the company’s operating model and the activities of partner drivers.”
The platform also stressed that the procedure’s requirements apply to business relationships or the provision of services that are “incompatible with the flexible characteristics of order-mediated employment.”
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