Foodora food delivery workers demonstrate for more money

Specifically, they complain, among other things, that the company employs too many freelancers and that they then receive too few orders to earn enough money. “Hardly anyone gets the hours they would like,” said Toni Pravdic, who is chairman of the central works council at Foodora’s competitor Lieferando, in an interview.

The “Riders on Strike” rode their bicycles and e-bikes from Westbahnhof via Mariahilfer Straße towards the city center to express their displeasure in front of the “foodora rider recruitment center” and the company headquarters. The signs read something like “Give us the work you promised us” or “3000 riders are enough for the few shifts.”

“Average pay has increased since January”

Foodora (formerly Mjam) emphasized that drivers had recently driven an average of 20 percent more hours than at the beginning of the year. “In addition, we have increased the average pay by 10 percent since January 2023,” the company said in a statement sent to the APA.

The demo is supported by the vida union. She demands that the protection of the collective agreement must apply to all delivery workers. Only in this way would they be entitled to mileage allowance, allowances, vacation as well as social security and sick pay. The union wants to extend the KV to independent contractors by including them in the Labor Constitution Act.

According to Foodora, the drivers themselves chose the freelance model. But they also offer real employment relationships. For reliable riders, the change can be done quickly and easily at any time. Foodora emphasized that freelancers also have health, accident, pension and unemployment insurance and that they do not work with freelancers or (phantom) self-employed people.

Employees organize their own hours

The freelancers at Foodora divide their own working hours for the week using a slot booking system. Around a third of the slots are released by the riders themselves over the course of the week, so there are always new slots that can be booked, according to the company.

There has been a separate collective agreement for bicycle messengers and food deliverers since 2020. It was the world’s first for bicycle delivery. However, this only applies to around 2,000 of the industry’s total of around 4,000 to 5,000 employees. The rest are freelancers or one-person companies (EPU), i.e. self-employed. However, they are not really free because they have to adhere to the delivery service’s rules defined in the delivery app.

Foodora and Lieferando are the two largest delivery services in Austria and are active in several cities. In Vienna there is a third provider, Wolt. Lieferando has around 1,000 messengers, all of whom are employed under the collective agreement. Around 150 drivers are employed at Foodora under the KV, and the vast majority of the total of around 3,000 riders receive their orders as freelancers. At Wolt there are only freelancers and self-employed people.

Many delivery drivers travel 1,000 kilometers or more

According to KV, the gross monthly salary is 1,730 euros gross. For work on Sundays there is an allowance of 5 euros per hour. The mileage allowance for those who travel with their own bike is 24 cents per kilometer. According to the Pravdic works council, many delivery workers travel 1,000 kilometers or more per month.

When asked how customers can contribute to better working conditions, Pravdic said it is not their job, but rather the responsibility of employers. It is important that all providers adhere to the rules of the game, otherwise there will be imbalances and competitive disadvantages for those companies that pay their employees better.

What customers could pay attention to when ordering food is that the distance between the restaurant and the delivery address is not too great, said Pravdic. He is ambivalent about the topic of tips. In any case, it should not be the case that customers subsidize the provider’s business model.

info By clicking on the icon you can add the keyword to your topics.

info
By clicking on the icon you open your “my topics” page. They have of 15 keywords saved and would have to remove keywords.

info By clicking on the icon you can remove the keyword from your topics.

Add the topic to your topics.