By Mustafa Abdullah (pseudonym) and Mizer Kamal
When 26-year-old Mousa Abdul Reda was injured in a traffic accident while working as a delivery driver — an accident that left him with a broken collarbone — his younger brother Hussein, 20, came to visit him in the hospital. Mousa was working for a delivery company whose name we’re withholding for his safety. Hussein also works as a delivery driver, but for a different company: Talabati.
Mousa recalls those moments with a heavy heart: “After I woke up from the anesthesia, my father — who was sitting beside me — received a phone call (…). I heard him whisper, ‘Ya Sattar’ (Oh Protector), before he walked out of the hospital.” His younger brother, Hussein, had just been in a traffic accident as well.
Mousa tried to leave the hospital to check on his brother Hussein, but the doctors wouldn’t allow it. “I waited until nine in the morning,” he says, “and all I could think about was those words — Ya Sattar (God, be our protector). After that, I signed myself out of the hospital against medical advice. My mother was with me, and neither of us had any idea what had happened to Hussein.”
“How could all this happen? I had an accident in the morning, and Hussein in the evening,” Mousa says, still struggling to make sense of it all. He describes his brother’s condition softly: “Not a single bone in his body was left intact. The crash was severe — the car that hit him was badly damaged, and his motorcycle was literally split in two.”
Hussein stayed in a coma for 11 long days before he passed away in May 2022. He was barely twenty—so young, with his whole life ahead of him.
Hussein had started working with the delivery company Talabati just three months before the accident. Mousa’s family wasn’t even sure if Hussein had signed a contract with the company. Yet, Mousa recalls how some of his brother’s friends — fellow delivery workers — told him contracts actually do exist. This uncertainty only added to Mousa’s burden.
According to Mousa, the company never contacted Hussein’s family. “We didn’t hear a word from them — no compensation, no financial support — except for one visit to the funeral gathering, during which they handed over 200,000 Iraqi dinars.” The company simply closed the installment record for the motorcycle Hussein had been paying for through Talabati. He had bought the motorcycle on installments by signing a promissory note with the company, which held his original personal documents as “insurance” forthe vehicle.
Mousa has also endured hardship because of his work with the company. Despite holding an employment contract, he is not entitled to health insurance until he completes 1,000 deliveries.
Mousa was studying at the College of Management and Economics at Al-Esraa University in Baghdad but had to drop out after the traffic accident he suffered while making a delivery for the company he works for. His late brother had completed only middle school.
The investigation traces the deadly risks faced by delivery drivers in Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, where accidents happen frequently amid a complete lack of protection and insurance. It also reveals legal violations committed by delivery companies—through their agents and intermediaries—in employment contracts, safety procedures, and the provision of health and social insurance. These violations expose delivery drivers to serious danger.
Hussein’s story was not the only one. Among 30 testimonies collected during the investigation, three delivery drivers died on the job. None of their families received legal compensation, nor did any of the companies officially acknowledge responsibility for the accidents.
A contract obtained by the investigation team from another driver working for “Alsaree3” states: “The second party [the driver] has no right to claim any financial or moral compensation from the first party [the company], nor to pursue any legal or clan-based action against them in any form. Should the second party be involved in an accident while performing their duties or as a result of them, this shall be considered an acknowledgment of that risk by the second party.”
“His death broke us,” says Mozaffar Mahdi, speaking about his son Mohammad, who died just shy of his 21st birthday. Mohammad was killed in a traffic accident beneath Al-Dawwar Bridge in Baghdad on September 18, 2022, while delivering an order for a customer of the company Talabati.
Mohammad spent two days at Al-Kadhimiya Teaching Hospital battling for his life. He later succumbed to head and leg injuries sustained in the accident.
His father says, “My son signed a contract with the company, and they owed him 100,000 dinars. We never received it, and no one ever asked about it. We don’t have the money to file a lawsuit, and even the driver responsible for Mohammad’s death—we didn’t seek tribal revenge because that’s in God’s hands. What else can I do?”
A Legislative Void Amidst the Chaos
Despite the rapid growth of Iraq’s delivery sector in recent years, the industry still operates without a dedicated legal framework. To this day, there is no specific law regulating modern delivery companies. Official authorities continue to rely on the amended Postal Law No. 97 of 1973 — a law drafted in a very different era that does not cover this type of business at all.
In 2021, Safwan Jassim, former general manager of the Iraqi General Company for Post and Savings, revealed that over a thousand delivery companies operate beyond state oversight, while only six or seven hold official licenses. He also noted that legal actions were initiated, leading to the closure of around 50 companies in Baghdad.
However, when the next director, Idris Khalid Abdul Rahman, took office, the company published a list in August 2022 revealing 118 unauthorized companies and offices, compared to only 44 licensed entities. This stark contrast highlighted significant discrepancies in the official figures and exposed the sector’s weak oversight, alongside the companies’ slow compliance with registration requirements.
In February 2023, Idris was dismissed from his position, and Zainab Abdul Sahib Abboud was appointed as the company’s new manager. Just two weeks later, the company issued a circular requiring all licensed companies to submit a “clearance certificate” from the Social Security Department within one month. However, the deadline passed without any announced results or enforcement actions against the companies in violation.
Corrupt Contracts and Adhesion Terms
Out of 30 drivers interviewed, five said they worked without signed contracts, while the others reported having signed contracts but were never given copies. The investigation team obtained copies of four contracts from the following companies: “Alsaree3”, Toters, Service Bird Company, and “Alebdaa Almostamer,” which is affiliated with Talabati.
These contracts reveal a consistentpattern of total shirking of responsibility, even though these companies are officially registered with the Ministry of Commerce.
The contract of the Toters app — owned by Al-Mada Marketing Company — reveals a total lack of genuine rights for the worker. The company’s role is limited to connecting the driver to its database and enabling them to receive orders.
Clause five in the contract places full legal, customary, and tribal responsibility solely on the worker for any damage caused during work, with no obligations from the company toward the worker or their family. This applies to all drivers who have signed the contracts.
Toters’ wage system follows a piece-rate model, in which drivers earn 2,000 Iraqi dinars (around $1.50) for each delivery up to 4 kilometers. They can also receive performance bonuses, divided into three tiers: Silver, Gold, and Diamond. The Diamond tier is awarded to drivers who complete 150 deliveries per week—an average of 21 deliveries per day—entitling them to an additional 1,200 dinars (about $0.90) per delivery.
However, qualifying for this bonus forces drivers to drastically increase their pace, putting them at serious risk on Baghdad’s congested streets.
The contract from Service Bird Company places full liability on the driver in the event of an accident—including in cases of death—with no obligation on the company to provide compensation. The work is simply defined as a “service” in exchange for a fee, and drivers are required to pay insurance contributions equal to one percent of their salary for the use of company-owned items such as uniforms and delivery boxes.
As for the contract from Alebdaa Almostamer, it contains no provisions granting rights to the worker. Instead, it focuses solely on the duties and obligations the driver must fulfill.
The investigation team shared copies of the contracts with lawyer Walid Al-Shabibi, a member of the Iraqi Bar Association, who labeled them “corrupt contracts” — using the legal classification that distinguishes between valid, void, and corrupt agreements. He noted that while these are technically adhesion contracts, they exceed even that category in the severity of their exploitative terms.
Al-Shabibi stresses that the first party (the company) is obligated to coordinate with the relevant government authorities to protect the rights of the second party (the worker), asking pointedly: “Did they do that? Clearly not.”
“He also held the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs accountable for the lack of oversight over these companies, emphasizing that both the modern Labor Law and the Workers’ Retirement and Social Security Law No. 18 of 2023 explicitly prohibit companies from shirking their responsibilities. Any delivery worker injured on the job is entitled to claim compensation—even if the company attempts to avoid liability through unlawful contracts.”
Ministry of Labor Admits to Invalid Contracts
Commenting on the employment contracts between delivery companies and workers, Saddam Neama, the legal advisor at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, explains that these contracts are considered invalid under labor law. Any agreement or action that strips a worker of their rights and benefits is deemed null and void.
He pointed out that workers have the right to file complaints with the ministry, where specialized committees within the Department of Labor and Vocational Training review these cases. If the dispute cannot be resolved, it can be escalated to the specialized Labor Courts.
Neama clarified that delivery companies deliberately avoid registering their workers with the social security system to sidestep paying monthly contributions—amounting to as much as 12 percent of employee wages. He noted that while the Ministry of Labor does not directly supervise the terms of contracts between companies and workers, those contracts are still required to adhere to labor law.
When asked about the registration status of delivery companies like Talabati and Al-Mada, Neama replied, “They are not officially registered.”
Guaranteed Meals… Uninsured Drivers
On a night in August 2024, 19-year-old driver S.F. was riding his motorcycle during a night shift with Toters delivery company, after completing a delivery in the Al-I’lam area of Baghdad. According to his brother H.F., S.F. was struck by another motorcycle, causing him to fall face-first and suffer a fractured jaw.
“I found him soaked in his own blood, screaming, while people refused to help,” H.F. recalls as he rushed his brother to Al-Yarmouk Teaching Hospital, where S.F. underwent multiple surgeries. His family had to buy the titanium plates [used for his facial reconstructive surgery] from the market themselves, with no support from the company. The treatment cost over $15,000, half of which was covered by the family. Although Toters knew about the accident, they didn’t even send a message of concern. His brother says, “We got no help from them—no medical support, no compensation, not even a simple word of relief, like thank God you’re safe.
The two brothers work for Toters, but neither received any protective gear or training as of the October 2024 interview. Not even a driver’s license was required. On top of that, salaries are often delayed by five days, sometimes up to a week, according to H.F., who had to take time off work to care for his injured brother. When he decided to return, he was shocked to find the company trying to terminate his employment. “I told them, we work with you, and we’ve been in the hospital for a month. After I pleaded with them, they agreed to let me come back.”
S.F.’s case is not an isolated one. In October 2024, Mustafa Ahmed, 22, another delivery driver working with Toters in Baghdad, was involved in a traffic accident in the Karada district when a car hit him and the driver fled the scene. Mustafa sustained a broken right hand and scratches on his left foot and hand. “My colleagues took me to Shaikh Zayed General Hospital, but no company official called to check on me or even came to visit,” Mustafa says.
Mustafa, who began working in September 2024, accuses the company of bearing no responsibility for accidents involving drivers: “If the order is damaged during an accident, the company only pays for its cost — but the driver gets nothing.”
These accidents shed light on a system lacking basic safety standards and workers’ rights. Numerous testimonies collected by the investigative team reveal that delivery companies—including Toters—refuse to provide drivers with a copy of their employment contracts or even allow them to take photos of them. Additionally, they fail to organize any traffic or safety training courses, despite the high-risk nature of the job.
While there are no provisions protecting the drivers, the contracts include clauses that hold them fully responsible for any damage to the order. Al-Mada, the owner of the Toters app, holds the driver liable for any loss, damage, or shortage of the delivered items, requiring them to pay compensation.
Manipulative Language to Undermine Workers’ Rights
Delivery companies in Iraq manipulate contract terminology with motorcycle drivers—using labels like “contractor” or “independent driver” instead of “worker” or “motorcycle driver.” Legal expert Mohammad Hazem explains that this strategy enables companies to sidestep labor law obligations—such as defining working hours, granting leave, ensuring occupational safety, job security, and even retirement benefits.
Hazem warns that this is a deliberate “legal trick,” transforming the company-driver relationship into a civil contract. This shift effectively removes the driver from the protections of labor law and strips them of their most basic rights. “When the designations ‘worker’ or ‘employee’ are deliberately omitted from the contract, the company legally removes the second party from labor law protections—which is, by itself, a violation.”
He adds that contracts framed as “civil agreements” exclude drivers from health insurance, life insurance, and any limits on working hours—leaving them vulnerable to exploitation in a regulatory vacuum, often accepted by workers driven by necessity rather than informed consent.
Worse still, Hazem notes, this ploy shifts any disputes away from labor courts to civilian “First Instance” courts, where drivers’ chances of reclaiming their rights are far weaker. “Despite all this legal evasion, companies still refuse to provide workers with a copy of the contract, preventing them from using it as legal evidence. That in itself is yet another violation.”
One Company, Unequal Rights
A comparison between Talabat’s operations in Iraq — part of the German Delivery Hero group — and how the parent company functions in Germany reveals a stark contrast in legal compliance and workers’ rights, particularly for delivery drivers.
In Iraq, Talabat follows a gig work model, hiring drivers through Alebdaa Almostamer under contracts that include no provisions for health or social insurance. This effectively allows the company to avoid any responsibility for the drivers’ safety or long-term job security.
By contrast, Delivery Hero in Germany—operating under the food delivery brand Foodora—adopted a formal employment model. In a 2018 statement, the company affirmed that all its drivers were employed under contracts that ensured health insurance, retirement benefits, accident coverage, and social security. The company also covered all non-wage-related costs, as a standard employer would.
That said, the company has not been free from criticism even in Europe. In Germany, it faced backlash for refusing to adopt collective bargaining agreements (Tariflöhne). In Spain, Glovo—a subsidiary of Delivery Hero—was fined by the government, prompting the company to reclassify its delivery drivers as full-time employees, a shift that reportedly cost around $100 million by the end of 2024.
In a public statement, Delivery Hero explained that Glovo adjusted its employment model to avoid legal repercussions. Spanish Labor and Social Economy Minister Yolanda Díaz responded firmly: “No major company is above the law. Democracy wins. “Just because a young person is using an app to work doesn’t make them an entrepreneur.”
The company has also come under criticism in countries such as Thailand and Brazil for low pay, arbitrary dismissals, and insufficient safety measures.
New Union to Regulate the Delivery Sector
The “Delivery Workers’ Union” was established in 2024 to organize the sector and ensure the rights of customers, drivers, and companies within a legal framework. Union leader Mortada Ismail emphasized that the current contractual relationship is essentially a “take-it-or-leave-it” agreement favoring the companies. Drivers are not given copies of their contracts, and some companies even require them to sign “tribal waivers” that absolve the companies of any responsibility if the driver is harmed while on the job.
The Delivery Workers’ Union was established in 2024 to regulate the sector and safeguard the rights of customers, drivers, and companies within a legal framework, according to union head Mortada Ismail. He noted that the current contractual relationship amounts to a contract of adhesion that serves only the companies’ interests. Drivers are not given copies of their contracts, and some companies even require them to sign a tribal waiver of liability which redeems the company of responsibility in the event the driver is harmed while on the job.
To help formalize its operations, the union launched an online registration platform, with some 500 drivers having joined so far. It also established a legal committee composed of lawyers to engage with the Ministry of Labor on issues such as enforcing social security coverage and amending contract terms. Ismail points out that companies deliberately withhold these contracts—not only from drivers, but also from the union and relevant authorities—because the agreements, as he puts it, “grant no rights to the second party and place full responsibility on the driver.”
Despite the sector’s rapid expansion, there are no official statistics on the number of delivery drivers in Iraq—not even in the capital, Baghdad. This lack of data is largely attributed to weak government oversight, as many companies intentionally avoid registering their workers with social security and health agencies in order to sidestep legal and tax obligations.
When Speed Becomes a Marketing Slogan
In November 2020, Toters launched a promotional ad in Iraq titled “Dosselha Ya Toters”—an Iraqi dialect phrase meaning “step on it” or “go faster.” The ad depicts an illegal street race, with a Toters rider outpacing muscular motorcyclists on powerful bikes, reinforcing the message that speed is the key to delivery success.
Later, Talabat capitalized on a trending traditional Iraqi folk chant and dance known as Al-Hawsa—energetic poetic chants deeply rooted in Iraq’s cultural heritage and folk traditions, often performed in groups to boost morale and express solidarity. The commercial also incorporated a widely recognized threatening phrase from popular culture. In the ad, a folk poet is surrounded by a group of Talabat drivers chanting: “The order arrives fast… in seconds, you’ll hear the horn at your door.” The message is clear: speed takes precedence over safety.
Mortada Ismail, head of the Delivery Workers’ Union, comments on these ads saying that companies exert indirect pressure on drivers to prioritize speed over road safety. This pressure is embedded in wage and bonus systems that increase rewards based on the number of deliveries completed daily or weekly. He argues that these policies push drivers to race against time on streets already burdened by heavy traffic congestion and inadequate infrastructure.
Companies’ Responses
The investigation team contacted five delivery companies in Iraq mentioned in the report: Talabat for Fast Delivery, Toters, Alsaree3 (Atbaq Al-Deera), Bareeq Al-Nahrain Delivery Services (Baly), and Talabati.
The investigative team reached out to these companies by sending emails and delivering official letters issued by ARIJ to their offices in Baghdad. Only two companies responded to our inquiries, while the remaining three did not reply.
Talabati Company
Mustafa Al-Turkmani, the media office director at Talabati, contacted the investigative team, initially asking whether ARIJ was a security agency. He went on to deny that the drivers whose stories were documented in the investigation were affiliated with the company.
Al-Turkmani blamed the drivers for not being registered in the social security system, claiming—via WhatsApp voice messages—that the company had repeatedly encouraged them to enroll, but they had refused. He also shared screenshots of posts from the company’s official Facebook page, dating back to 2021, in which drivers were urged to register for social security.
However, the ARIJ investigative team found that these posts referenced an ID format issued by the so-called “General Syndicate of Social and Tourism Services”—an entity with no verifiable online presence or official website.
Al-Turkmani also cited a post from the “General Federation of Iraqi Trade Unions,” (GFTU) but he did not provide any formal documentation proving that Talabati drivers were enrolled in health or social insurance programs. He invited ARIJ to visit the company’s Baghdad office—or send a representative—for what he described as “a proper response.”
Toters
Toters responded to ARIJ via email with a broad, formulaic statement that did not address the specific questions posed by the investigative team.
In its response, the company stated: “We are committed to providing drivers with all essential safety equipment, such as helmets, and we encourage them to participate in a three-day field training program designed to enhance their preparedness and promote a culture of road safety.”
The company also claimed to be in full compliance with Iraqi laws and regulations, including labor law and social security provisions. However, it provided no documentation or evidence to confirm whether its delivery workers are registered with the country’s health or social insurance systems.
Toters concluded its response by emphasizing the role of its drivers and partners: “We believe our success is tied to the success of our partners—from contracted drivers to restaurants, shops, and the thousands of employees working with them, all the way to our customers, whose trust we value every day. Based on that belief, we continue to invest in developing Iraq’s tech sector and expanding economic opportunities that contribute to nationwide growth.”
Talabat
No response was received.
Blay
No response was received.
Alsaree3
No response was received.
Delivery Drivers’ Daily Struggles
Delivery drivers in Baghdad face mounting challenges in the absence of effective regulation governing their relationship with delivery companies. Every driver interviewed by the investigation team confirmed that the companies they work for do not require motorcycle registration with the General Directorate of Traffic. This lack of oversight contributes to chaos on the roads, increasing the risks for both drivers and pedestrians, while also disrupting the overall flow of traffic.
To avoid fines and police crackdowns targeting unregistered motorcycles, drivers have developed various methods—such as creating groups on WhatsApp and Facebook—to share information about the locations of traffic checkpoints and patrol units, in an effort to avoidhaving their motorcycles confiscated.
Over time, these online groups have become an informal record of the daily struggles faced by delivery drivers—filled with posts about sudden dismissals, delayed responses from support centers, complaints about long delivery routes, and frequent traffic accidents on the job. The investigative team reviewed a large archive of these conversations, offering a clear picture of the kinds of daily pressures these workers navigate as part of their job.
The challenges extend beyond the streets. Many company offices—often located in residential neighborhoods across Baghdad—are nothing more than prefabricated metal containers, lacking even the most basic safety standards. These makeshift offices are typically used to receive job applications of new drivers.
For the companies, it’s nothing more than an “employment contract” — something that can be terminated at any time. But for the workers who have been injured or lost their lives on the job, and for their families, it’s far more than that: it becomes a permanent loss or a source of ongoing pain and hardship. The family of Mohammad Muzafar — who died in a traffic accident while working for Talabat — never received his salary, despite repeated promises from the company. “Talabat didn’t even give us Mohammad’s salary,” his brother said. “So how can we expect them to compensate us?”
After the accident, the family forbade their son Reda from riding motorcycles, fearing that the tragedy might repeat itself. Reda confirmed that one of Mohammad’s colleagues at the same company lost a leg in a similar crash. “This didn’t just happen to Mohammad,” he said. “It’s happened to many others, too.”
This hardship is also reflected in the story of Hussein Abdul Reda’s family. Hussein died in a traffic accident while working for Talabati — and on the very same day, his brother Mousa survived a separate crash while working for a different delivery company.
“Every time I go to work, I think about it,” Mousa says. “I’m afraid I could meet the same fate as Hussein at any moment.”
Despite the risks, Mousa continues to work as a delivery driver, having no alternative job opportunity. He describes the profession as “more dangerous than military service” and calls on the government to require companies to provide drivers with health and social insurance to protect their lives and rights.
This investigation was conducted with the support of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) and in collaboration with JAMAR.
