Associated Incidents
He studied design and graphics for the web and in the meantime, to support himself , he made home deliveries in the evening. It was working as a rider that Sebastian Galassi, 26, from Florence, lost his life in a car accident on 2 October. The following morning, the family members read an e-mail, sent to the boy's address by the Glovo delivery company, for which Galassi was working before he died: an automatic message, announcing Sebastian's dismissal for "non-compliance terms and conditions". The company fired its employee, who lost his life in that job after his death. The company immediately contacted the family to apologize for the automatic "sent by mistake" message.
Sebastian Galassi had lost his mother a few years earlier. In his spare time he enjoyed playing football on the Lion King team. The evening before the accident, Saturday 1 October, he was delivering a dinner at home with his scooter in via De Nicola, when he violently collided with a Land Rover SUV. The exact dynamics of the accident are yet to be ascertained. The clash was fatal for the boy, who despite being promptly hospitalized in Careggi hospital, was in such serious condition that it was not possible to save him. The judiciary is now investigating the death of Sebastian Galassi, which will pass the scrutinycameras installed along the street: they could have filmed the scene. Thus grows the sad list of deaths at work in the delivery sector. In 2022, as the mayor of Florence Nardella recalled in a message of condolence for the death of Galassi, in Tuscany there were two other deaths at work while making home deliveries: William De Rose , who lost his life last 25 March in Livorno, Romulo Sta Ana, who died on January 29 in Montecatini. A few weeks ago Roman Emiliano Zapata also lost his life, who died on 19 September on the Terragno, in the Treviso area.
The Florentine CGIL, in expressing closeness to Galassi's family, has announced a 24-hour strike for next 5 October. Ilaria Lani, general secretary Nuove Identità di Lavoro (Nidil) CGIL Firenze, the trade union structure of the CGIL that represents and protects atypical workers, told Factquotidiano.it that the protest, which will take place from 6pm in Piazza Sant'Ambrogio in Florence , is joined by an appeal to consumers and citizens: refrain from ordering at home through delivery platforms. "We have been denouncing the precarious conditions for some time of this sector and of those who work in this sector. In particular, of those who work with the three digital platforms that maintain piecework wages and self-employment contracts". Lani refers to Glovo, Deliveroo and Uber, companies belonging to Assodelivery: "We have an open discussion with these companies. These workers are not properly framed and we must ensure that they are guaranteed all the protections of dependent employment, starting from one wage per hour".
In fact, the workers of these delivery platforms, not having the certainty of being able to set aside a salary at the end of the month, in order to make more deliveries and earn more are forced to run. "A perverse mechanism", comments Lani, "which underlies the high rate of accidents in the sector: the risk that this type of work already brings with it becomes exponential when the worker is induced to run. Because with an extra delivery you get paid more and the algorithm takes you into greater consideration when assigning deliveries". Companies, continues Lani, argue that workers are preferred this salary and organizational model, which would be "freer and more flexible", but it is not: most riders have only this economic income and a model that would ensure - according to the trade unions, but also the workers - an hourly wage would be same bellhops to request it. "The feeling is that these companies base their competition solely on the speed of delivery that customers have become accustomed to. But it is the workers who pay the price and we as a trade union, with this strike, want to send a message of alarm to consumers as well".
The issue of piecework pay is the issue on which the confrontation between trade unions and society stops: competition in the sector pushes people to run, and their organization seems to be based on this "running". A fact that should question all citizens, adds Lani. "Because the risk is for them and for us at the same time: if there are hundreds of messengers on the street running to deliver the sandwich as soon as possible, the risk is also for the pedestrian who is in their way. In Florence, for example, we hear a lot about the theme of pedestrian areas: some companies send workers to make the routes in the pedestrian areas by bicycle, to be faster". A stalemate, she concludes, despite the fact that the law exists ("even if it can certainly be improved") and "we have plenty of judgments - courts of Florence, Bologna, Milan, Turin, Palermo - which continue to say that these workers must be classified differently. But to date it is not possible to follow up on the sentences, building an adequate regulation of the sector".