We want to express our full solidarity with all those working as Delivery Drivers for the Pyszne.pl platform, which is currently under lockdown. We are furious with the way Just Eat Takeaway.com (operating in Poland under the Pyszne.pl brand) treats its employees. During the pandemic, we repeatedly heard that Delivery Drivers are heroes who work on the streets despite the dangers. Now, 5,000 of these “heroes” are being treated like garbage – even though they continue to risk their lives and health every day at work.
We want to emphasize that this development was completely avoidable. All it took was for the state to stop being passive. For years, we have been demonstrating that Delivery Drivers’ working conditions were deteriorating. Over a year ago, we received the first signals from the Trade Unions operating at Liferando (the German sister company of the Polish Pyszne.pl) that the situation of the employees working for this platform would worsen. Because in times of such brutal competition, pary.pl won’t stay afloat unless it starts playing the same game as other platforms. That is, unless it starts lowering wages and employment conditions. We’ve informed and warned the Polish government about all of this numerous times.
The current situation is reminiscent of the German lockdown (which we also described here): in 2019, over 2,000 Deliveries lost their jobs overnight on the Deliveroo platform. The exact same thing is happening in Poland now. And this is happening literally a dozen or so days after the National Labor Inspectorate was granted additional powers intended to protect us, the workers. So, once again, the state apparatus has been outplayed by capitalism and is abandoning us to fend for ourselves.
And also:
THERE ARE 4 MONTHS AND 10 DAYS LEFT TO IMPLEMENT THE PLATFORM WORK DIRECTIVE.