Last week, there was information that Uber Eats is forcing its employees to accept new terms of cooperation. Interestingly, they are supposed to come into effect retroactively (i.e. from June 1, 2021). Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to see this document, so we can neither confirm nor deny it.
But one thing is certain: when working for Platforms, the terms of cooperation are not negotiated. You either accept them or you don’t work. It’s as simple as building a flail. So introducing terms in this manner is an obvious coercion.
Łukasz, who runs the website www.dostawca-jedzenia.pl (we recommend it!), published an article on this topic on Saturday [24.08.2024]. He suggests that, by introducing new terms, Uber Eats is protecting itself against the consequences of the Directive on Work for Platforms adopted by the European Union (you can read more about the Directive here). He also claims that the Directive in its current form is unfavourable for people working as Suppliers. And here, unfortunately, we cannot agree with him. Indeed, the Directive could have been more specific and restrictive – in the original versions, it was supposed to be that way. But it is not. It is very, very general. And as we have already pointed out many times: it is completely unknown how it will be implemented in Poland. It may be very “pro-social” (e.g. it will be easy to obtain the status of an employee with an employment contract) or it may be very “pro-Platform” (obtaining such status will be practically impossible, and intermediaries will continue to prey on our work).
So before we throw up our hands: we encourage everyone to get involved in Trade Unions acting on behalf of Platform employees.
And we ask you for help: if any of you have access to these new UberEats regulations – let us know.
Oh! and we recommend our interview with Łukasz, in which he talks about himself and his work for Platforms: see here.
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