In Brazil, delivery app workers endure more than just work

Although Brazil’s major cities have affordable, quality food on every corner, with different price options for those who want to eat between work hours, the Covid pandemic only skyrocketed something that was already prevalent before the health crisis: the frenzy of using food delivery apps.

As Latin America’s most populous country, Brazil unsurprisingly accounts for a large share of food orders, especially in cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

But numbers provided to The Brazilian Report by iFood, which accounts for 80 percent of the app delivery market in Brazil, show that episodes of violence against its delivery workers are piling up.

This year alone, more than 13,500 cases of assaults or threats of assault against employees have been reported, with nearly 30 percent occurring in Rio.

Recently, footage of an iFood worker being shot in the leg after an altercation with a man went viral, sparking outrage among netizens over the poor working conditions these people face.

According to the Brazilian NGO Fogo Cruzado, which studies armed violence, the numbers are even murkier.

There is evidence of four iFood delivery workers among a list of 44 delivery workers and motorcycle taxi drivers who have been wounded by bullets in the last eight years. This makes it urgent not only to confront the numbers, but also to think of solutions aimed at providing greater protection to these workers.

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