A Glovo food delivery courier stands next to Sol square in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2020. Spain has fined delivery company Glovo nearly 79 million euros ($78 million) for violating a 2021 law that obliged app-based food delivery platforms to make their riders full employees, Spain’s labor minister said Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. Credit: AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File

Spain fined delivery company Glovo nearly 79 million euros ($78 million) for violating a 2021 law that obliged app-based food delivery platforms to make their riders full employees, Spain's labor minister said Wednesday.

Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz said Glovo had continued to treat some 10,000 regular riders as self-employed workers when they should have been taken on as staff employees.

"We are talking about workers who are actually not self-employed, and so the full weight of the law will fall on the company," Díaz said.

The minister confirmed the fine, originally reported by Cadena SER radio, to reporters at the Spanish Parliament. Diaz said the penalty, which resulted from a inspection by work monitors, had led to Glovo hiring those 10,000 riders.

Glovo is a Spanish company that operates in 25 countries, mostly in Europe.

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