Milan. A historic conviction was handed down in Milan to one of the executives of a delivery worker intermediation firm implicated in the broader Milanese investigation that also involved Uber's Italian subsidiary. This acknowledges the exploitative conditions in which the riders work, and have worked even during the pandemic, delivering food and goods.
This is the first conviction in a criminal trial for gangmastering of delivery riders in Milan, the one handed down by preliminary hearing judge Teresa De Pascale to Giuseppe Moltini, who was sentenced to 3 years and 8 months.
The executive is among those responsible for the brokerage firms implicated in the investigation by prosecutor Paolo Storari, which also led to the administration of Uber's Italian subsidiary, which was revoked in March by the judges after the company's "virtuous" path was recognized.
The preliminary hearing judge also decided to convert the seizure of approximately 500 thousand euros in cash, ordered during the investigation, into compensation of 10 thousand euros each for the 44 delivery men who were civil parties and 20 thousand euros for the CGIL.
The sentence was issued in the abbreviated trial against Moltini, who was accused of gangmastering of delivery drivers who, through the intermediary companies Flash Road City and Frc srl, made home deliveries of food on behalf of Uber.
Two other defendants were sentenced (2 years and 1 year and 6 months) but only for tax crimes. The judge also decided to convert the precautionary seizure of about 500 thousand euros in cash, carried out in the investigations of the prosecutor Storari on the sums found in the possession of the intermediaries, into compensation for the 44 riders, who worked between Milan, Turin and Florence and who had entered the proceedings precisely to request recognition of the damages suffered, assisted among others by the lawyer Giulia Druetta.
The CGIL and the Chamber of Labour, represented by lawyer Andrea Ronchi, are also civil parties. On July 5, the same judge had indicted Gloria Bresciani, a suspended Uber manager, also accused of gang-mastering delivery workers. Her hearing is scheduled for October 18 before the ninth criminal section of the Milan Court. The preliminary hearing judge also indicted the intermediary company FRC, charged under the administrative liability law, and accepted the plea bargains for gang-mastering against Leonardo Moltini (three years) and Danilo Donnini (two years), both managers of the labor intermediary companies, and another defendant, Miriam Gilardi, who received a sentence of one year and six months for aiding and abetting. Uber has been cited as a civil liability defendant. Bresciani and the other three accused of gang-mastering, according to the prosecution, recruited riders by hiring them at Flash Road City and FRC srl "and then assigning them to work for the Uber group under exploitative conditions." In particular, workers were “paid 3 euros per piece,” “robbed” of tips, and “punished” with a reduction in wages if they did not follow the rules.
+ + + + We receive and publish the following request for clarification:
We read your news about the ruling on the topic of gangmastering, referring to a brokerage firm that worked for Uber in the past. The news you reported is incorrect, given that the manager who is cited is not and has never been an employee of Uber and that it was not Uber that was convicted.
Uber / Uber Eats Press Office in Italy
We have corrected the incorrect title and apologize to Uber and our readers. The body of the article clearly specifies that the convicted executive is one of the top executives of a brokerage firm that was involved in the wider investigation that also led to the Italian branch of Uber being placed under special administration.
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