Foodora courier tells why he supports the campaign

“As a former ’Freelancer’ and current ‘Rider Captain’ employee at Foodora Finland, I want to give my full support to this campaign which seeks to repeal the recent pay cuts and improve precarious working conditions for freelance ‘delivery partners’ at the company with a set of 5 demands.

During the 15 months I have worked for the company I have seen a consistent decline in the rights and responsibilities afforded to its workers, the majority of whom are of immigrant background. In the past year, this has included the removal of a social space, taking away parking provisions and fuel subsidies for car drivers and, most recently, a deduction in the hourly pay given to its ‘delivery partners’.

In Finland, the majority of the Freelance workers are immigrants, who face substantial entry barriers when seeking employment opportunities. Many rely on the income they make from Foodora in order to survive and provide for their families. The recent changes to working conditions and pay cuts are adversely affecting this vulnerable social group.

The way Foodora treats its workforce is not unique, but closely resembles the business strategy of other food delivery firms in the international gig economy, whereby Freelancers are not considered as employees, despite working conditions which closely resemble that of employment. While this issue is not new in the global context, it is a theme which has not been fully scrutinized in the Finnish setting.

Today workers, academics, cyclists, drivers and concerned citizens are coming together to voice their frustration at developments in the company. There is a responsibility to act to protect a particularly vulnerable section of the Finnish labour market from worsening conditions and ensure that companies treat their staff in adherence of ethics and national laws.

For these reasons, I want to proclaim my public support to the campaign and wish them success in achieving their 5 demands.”

Marcus Nicolson, Foodora Rider and PhD Student
#justice4couriers

Work day of a Foodora Courier

As couriers, just as it usually occurs for any other occupation, we often assume people know a lot about what we do, so we only explain very specific details or events, I would like to bring clarity into what a Foodora bike rider does:

To begin our shift we gear up and head for the center of Helsinki, we need to be within a specific area and in a 15 min time window prior to our scheduled time to be able to start the shift, then we wait for orders, sometimes orders come immediately one after another, sometimes we wait for hours, sometimes you wish for a break as you may get tired from going up and down from one extreme of the city to the other, sometimes you would really like to have more orders instead of just waiting there fidgeting with your phone, as they factor as about 40% of your total income.

When you get an order your clock starts ticking, you are timed for every possible data indicator the system can get through your phone, time to get to the restaurant, waiting for the food to be ready, bringing the food to the client’s proximity and, finally, delivering the food to the client after accessing the building and walking up the stairs if needed.

New order, clock begins ticking again, this information is then used to compare your performance to the rest of the freelancers, it differentiates us according to a batch system those with better KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) have good chances for acquiring shifts – which are limited and booked every Wednesday for the upcoming week – perhaps even suit them smoothly into their schedule; on the other hand, riders with lower KPIs will usually pick any shift they can get, often having to reschedule personal events, there is also the chance of not finding any shift as all of them have already been taken, your weekly income is zero, without shifts you have little chances to find shifts next week. It is pretty logical, effective system, however, Is this an acceptable business relation between human beings?

Anonymous Foodora Courier

It’s not just about Foodora or couriers, but about worker rights

Most of the couriers work under freelance-contracts, which means that they are themselves responsible for pensions, insurances and for maintaining their own bikes or cars, while having no sick pay or any guarantees against illness or accidents. More so, Foodora removed recently also the rider space, where couriers could change, warm up, eat, go to the toilet and repair their bikes. And in case you’re wondering, yes, couriers ride the year round in Finland.

Even though the couriers work under obligations equivalent to those of employees, by keeping them as freelancers Foodora externalizes risks and costs of production to them, while taking no responsibility for its workers. The Foodora couriers are no independent entrepreneurs or “delivery partners”, as Foodora puts it, in any meaningful sense of the term.

This is not something new that the so-called #gigeconomy has invented, but a return to early capitalism, where workers had no or minimal rights, benefits and guarantees. Those rights that we now take for granted were won through long struggles. So don’t let capital to circumvent them by using freelance contracts.

This not only about couriers or just about companies trying to break mutually agreed rules of employment. This is about a large legal and political-economic question of how work is organized. If one employer can externalize costs by circumventing responsibilities with forced sham entrepreneurship, others will follow. And those others are also your employers.

Because an injury to one is an injury to all.

Ex-Foodora Courier, Helsinki Bike Messenger and Postdoc Researcher Tuomas Tammisto

The campaign begins: Foodora take responsibility! Justice for couriers!

Foodora couriers and drivers in cooperation with Vapaa syndikaatti and Vastavoima launch a campaign to repeal recent pay cuts and improve working conditions at Foodora in Finland. Our demands are as follows:

1) Repeal the recent pay cuts
2) Fair and transparent shift allocation and possibility for guaranteed hours
3) Reinstate the rider space for couriers and drivers
4) Equipment compensation and insurance against accidents and illness
5) Possibility for an employment contract

We formally start the campaign today on Thursday September 6 by handing our demands in person to Foodora at the Foodora HQ in Helsinki (Kaivokatu 10) at 14:00. During the hand-over we will organize a small demonstration in front of Foodora’s office, read out our demands and courier experiences.

We welcome the press, potential allies and anyone interested to participate or contact us by email at foodoravastuuseen@gmail.com.

The press releases of the campaign can be found here. If you want to interview couriers, please contact us via email.