suomeksi / Facebook
From the point of view of a courier working for a platform company, the employment assumption is a sorely needed reform that would bring the working conditions and legal situation of those forced to work as sham entrepreneurs on par with the minimum standards as required by labor legislation. Even though the law is in fact very clear — if work is done in a dependent position, one is not an entrepreneur — in practice nobody guarantees the legal protection of platform workers or other sham entrepreneurs.
There is a regulatory vacuum in the growing platform economy in Finland. The companies working in the field take shamelessly advantage of people in a vulnerable position, especially that of migrants, and their need to take on work under any conditions. Due to this vulnerable position, the platform workers have to bear the costs of both entrepreneurship and employment without the benefits of either.
For example, the couriers working as sham entrepreneurs for Foodora and Wolt are completely subjected to the unquestionable control of the companies during their work. They are expected to behave in particular ways, wear company uniforms, while expected to cover from their small pay all the side expenses of their work from insurances to equipment and bear all the risks from illness, accidents and the uncertainty over the continuity of work.
In the Justice4couriers campaign we demand an end to the ruthless exploitation of the workforce and the circumvention of the labor legislation that was purposefully designed to protect workers. The platform economy and the companies using its methods are no great innovations as presented in myths. The great innovation is merely rhetorical; the treacherous definition of workers as independent contractors.
It is the responsibility of decision makers not to be overwhelmed by this development. If we want to call our country a welfare state that is just and fair and that respects the value of people, we must take control of this development and bring it into the sphere of proper regulation.
