After more than a year-and-a-half of zipping takeout meals around a pandemic-stricken city, app-based delivery workers are hopeful that city lawmakers are poised to grant them new workplace protections. The New York City Council advanced a package of bills this week that seek to address some of the harsh conditions that this workforce—predominantly immigrants of color—face every day.

The bills would impose new requirements on third-party app companies and restaurant owners, including a measure that would give workers restroom access inside the establishments for which they’re delivering food—a change that tops the list for many deliverers.

“It’s summer! With the heat, the whole time we are drinking water because we are always on the bikes,” said Pépé Jhonson, in Spanish. The 22-year-old delivery worker is also a Bronx organizer with Los Deliveristas Unidos, the city’s fast-growing group of food couriers fighting for labor rights. The organization, which is a part of the Worker’s Justice Project, has been holding rallies and pushing lawmakers to grant their demands for better working conditions.

The majority of the package puts the onus on third-party-app companies. One bill would allow delivery workers to set travel distance limits without facing a penalty. Another seeks to establish a payment for deliveries that’s in line with the city’s $15 hourly minimum wage.

Companies would also be required to provide bicycle deliverers with insulated bags, pay them weekly, and provide options for those who don’t have bank accounts.

In a testimony submitted to the City Council in a public hearing on Tuesday, DoorDash noted “all Dashers are paid weekly” and are provided “access to a prepaid card” but did not fully support the payment standard bill, sponsored by Council Member Carlos Menchaca. A spokesperson for Uber, which owns UberEats, said the company supports Menchaca’s bill. They also support the measure to set route distances but “with some minor technical concerns.”

Neither company expressed support for minimum payment requirements.

Although struggling restaurant owners have major gripes with the third-party platform companies, there is some basic support for their delivery workers within the community. The New York State Restaurant Association said it supports the restroom access bill given that it comes with expectations for delivery workers—they cannot walk through an area where food is being prepared to get to a bathroom. But, the New York City Hospitality Alliance wants restaurants to have the ability to make their own policies, like requiring large, insulated bags to be left outside. The bill also comes with a $50 fine for a restaurant’s first-time offense, and the NYCRA wants to see that changed to a warning.

While Jhonson noted one of the hardest parts of her job is trying to use a bathroom, she said the other most difficult part is making sure she’s safe. Since none of the bills specifically address concerns over armed robberies of costly e-bikes and keeping delivery workers protected from other violent crimes, Los Deliveristas Unidos is also choosing to advocate for better police protection on the streets. They’re not advocating for more police presence, but they want to see officers take e-bike theft seriously. A spokesperson for LDU said they would be meeting with leaders from the New York City Police Department every month.

”We need to be able to leave the house without fear,” said Jhonson.