'It's modern-day slavery': Wolt strike in Cyprus

A major strike of Wolt food delivery couriers in Cyprus took place from 20 March to 26 March. The week-long strike began in Limassol on 20 March before spreading to the capital, Nicosia, on 22 March. Around 500 riders are believed to have participated in the action, facing down threats and police violence. A solidarity crowdfunder has been launched to support the riders.

The Gig Economy Project spoke to Mohammed (name changed for anonymity purposes), a Wolt rider in Nicosia, to find out more.

Gig Economy Project: What was the reason for the strike?

Mohammed: It started because of the low pay of Wolt. We receive just €1.10 as a minimum per order. You can see in the screenshots [see below] how low our pay rates are.

We work through fleet companies [sub-contractors] which take 35% of what we earn from Wolt, which reduces our income even more.

Wolt say that we have agreements with the fleet companies, but the fleet companies do not accomplish a lot of what is in these agreements. For example, it says in my agreement that the fleet company will pay me €60 for my fuel expenses, but I don't receive anything, and the cost of fuel is more like €200. The agreement also says that we have a salary rate from the fleet company, but in reality we are only paid based on the money we earn from Wolt.

GEP: We have heard reports of riders being attacked during the strike, is that true?

Mohammed: Yes. We have had violence against us, because they wanted to spoil the strikes. One day we had an issue with the police, one day we had an issue with people we didn't know on the street.

We are all foreign students and they threatened to take away our right to work in Cyprus.

About 50 riders involved in the strike have had their IDs blocked, and they cannot work anymore. Wolt is refusing to admit that they have blocked the IDs, but we have screenshots which prove this.

The fleet managers are asking riders to pay to get a new account activated, and this will cost them a lot of money.

GEP: Why did the strike end?

Mohammed: We returned to work on Friday [27 March], after being on strike for seven days. The situation is very difficult. At the end of the month, we need to pay rents for our home, for our bikes, and we don’t have enough money to handle this situation.

We are now getting paid even less than before the strike. During the strike Wolt gave bonuses to riders to encourage them to work: now the bonuses are gone.

GEP: What is your own situation?

Mohammed: I worked 12-14 hours every day. I earned around €70-80 per day. So with these strike days, I have lost around €400. I need to pay my rent and my expenses. Many people don’t even have enough for their groceries and things like this. How is it possible to study when you have to work like this every day?

GEP: What is your message for Wolt?

Mohammed: It is very simple: you can build your empire, but not like this; paying less and less. Because as a rider, we have to feel happy when we are working for the company, and we are not happy. This is modern-day slavery.

The Gig Economy Project asked Wolt for a response to the claims made in this interview. We also asked Wolt if they will be changing anything about their operations in light of the strike. Wolt did not respond.

Gig Economy news round-up

EX-FOODORA EXECUTIVES PLEAD GUILTY TO BOGUS SELF EMPLOYMENT IN FRANCE: Two former Foodora executives in France have pleaded guilty to 'concealed work'. Boris Mittermüller and Stéphane Mac Millan Gay accepted a charge of overseeing an undeclared workforce and agreed to pay fines of €50,000 and €20,000 respectively, thus avoiding a trial. The two ex-Foodora France executives are also banned from running a company for three years each. Foodora, which is owned by German multi-national Delivery Hero, left the French market in 2018. The criminal charges of bogus self-employment had been brought forward by 231 former Foodora riders, as well as unions Solidaires and CNT-SO, and was backed by social security agency Urssaf. In 2022, the French court of cassation found ex Deliveroo executives guilty of bogus self-employment, fining them the maximum possible fine of €375,000. The lawyer for the riders, Kevin Mention, criticised the fine, describing it as a "derisory sanction in relation to this fraud and the damage to France, estimated by the Urssaf at several million euros". The prosecutor defended the fine, stating that it is "a negotiated sentence that is fair, and that will not postpone the civil compensation of civil parties by several years". Read more here.
FINNISH SUPREME COURT CONFIRMS WOLT RIDERS ARE EMPLOYEES: The President of Finnish union PAM called on Wolt to end the "delaying tactics" and employ its riders, after the Finnish Supreme Administrative Court rejected the food delivery platform's appeal. Wolt was seeking to overturn the decision of Finland's highest court last May, which found that Wolt riders meet all the requirements for an employment relationship. The appeal did not delay the legal effect of the original judgement, but despite that Wolt, which is headquartered in Finland, has not moved to employ its riders, instead trialling an employment model for a small number of riders, and one that does not include payment for waiting time. Annika Rönni-Sällinen, President of PAM, responded to the rejection of the appeal by stating: "We are pleased that the Supreme Administrative Court upheld its precedent. Wolt has failed to follow the decision of the highest court for almost a year. This should not be possible in Finland. The company must now stop delaying and couriers should be viewed as employees." Rönni-Sällinen added that it was now necessary for Finland to introduce "an automatic and effective legal presumption of employment relationship for all platform work" as required by the EU Platform Work Directive, in order to avoid constant legal battles over employment classification. She cited cleaning and ice cream kiosks as two other industries in Finland where bogus self-employment is currently flourishing. Read more here.
GLOVO SACKS 750 RIDERS IN SPAIN: Glovo has followed up its shift to an employment model last year by announcing lay-offs of 750 riders in 60 cities across Spain. The Barcelona headquartered food delivery platform, which is owned by German multi-national Delivery Hero, announced the move on 11 March, stating that it was necessary to avoid the company's "closure", and that operations in the rest of Spain would stay as they are "for the moment". Cities affected include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville and Malaga. The CCOO union had accused the company in February of covert lay-offs and threatened a national mobilisation if the company's "anti-union practices" did not stop. As well as the 14,000 riders believed to be hired directly by Glovo, another 21,000 are understood to be employed via subcontractors. CCOO told El Paìs that they believed sub-contracting would "intensify" following the firing of the 750 directly hired riders. Glovo had refused to employ its riders for years despite the passing of the 'Rider Law', which established a legal presumption of employment in the food delivery sector in Spain, but after hundreds of millions in government fines for bogus self-employment the company finally moved to an employment model last July. Read more here.
WOLT RIDERS IN CROATIA STRIKE FOR 3 DAYS: Wolt food delivery couriers in Croatia took three days of strike action from 22-24 March, demanding a pay rise. The strike in the Balkans country saw Wolt offer riders a 40% bonus to work during the hours of 10.30am to 4pm on 23 March in an attempt to break the strike. Couriers in Croatia are hired through small intermediary firms known as 'aggregators' which have been known for systematic abuses of workers' rights. The riders demanded a minimum 40% increase in pay, that pay is clearly defined on a per kilometre/per minute basis, and that the algorithm is improved and made more transparent. Wolt is owned by US food delivery platform DoorDash. Read more here.
UBER STRIKES BIG AV DEAL WITH RIVIAN: Uber has agreed to pay an initial $300 million which could rise eventually to $1.25 billion for Rivian's autonomous vehicle trucks. Rivian will initially supply 10,000 robotaxi style R2 SUV's to Uber, with the option to buy up to 40,000 up to 2030. The robo-taxis will begin unsupervised service delivery in 2028. Uber does not have its own in-house AV tech and has relied on signing partnerships with at least 16 AV makers around the world. The Silicon Valley company has sought to reassure investors that it won't be swept away by robotaxi makers like Waymo, Tesla and Amazon's Zoox, with CEO Dara Khosrowshahi telling investors in an earnings call in February that the company's margins on AV rides were “very similar to other products out there”. He also said that robo-taxis still only account for 0.1% of ridehail trips globally. Read more here. Read more here.
AGENCY WORK PLATFORM EXPANDS UK OPERATIONS: A platform providing temporary agency work for businesses is significantly expanding its UK operations. Traxlo established in Leeds in January and has recently opened up operations in Manchester. The company is running pilots in London and Milton Keynes and its CEO Paul Vezelis says it is attracting interest from companies "looking for new ways to control rising labour costs". Traxlo, which was founded in Lithuania in 2020, boasts that 30,000 workers are signed-up to its app for work on a per-assignment basis across Europe. Companies known to have hired labour via Traxlo include supermarket chain Carrefour, Żabka, one of Poland's largest convenience stores, and the German supermarket conglomerate Rewe Group. The passing of the UK Employment Rights Act has led to concern over a wave of bogus self-employment as companies could seek to breach labour laws to reduce costs. Read more here.

Have we missed something important? You can help keep us informed about what's going in the gig economy in Europe by e-mailing GEP@BraveNewEurope.com.

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The Counter-app podcast series explores how app-based workers can counter the power of their algorithmic bosses. Each episode is based on new research for the ETUC on platform work, with the third episode exploring the health & safety implications of platform work. Listen here.

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Workers' Observatory report by Dr Karen Gregory and Boyan Karabaliev on health & safety in delivery work.

Events

The next webinar of the European Campaign for Decent Platform Work will hear from Maria Laura Birgillito, lecturer in labour law at the Complutense University of Madrid, discussing Article 3 of the Platform Work Directive on intermediaries, April 17, 10.30-12 CET. Register here.

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