Today we’re sharing our conversation with Dominik, who told us what it’s like working for a subcontractor, who is a subcontractor. Yes, that’s how it works: the Pyszne.pl platform outsources deliveries to the Stava platform, and Dominik works for them. However, according to corporate jargon, no one works for anyone here. Here, everyone is a “subcontractor,” or perhaps a “partner,” for everyone else.
We spoke after Dominik contacted us with the problem of dramatically low wages, lower than the minimum wage. We encourage you to contact us using a special, anonymous form
WE TALK ABOUT THIS ALL THE TIME
Can you tell us about yourself? How did you end up working for the Platforms?
Hi, my name is Dominik. I study in a college and I love driving – that’s when I rest the best. And, like many people my age, I like listening to good music and sometimes play computer games. How did I end up working for Platforms? I was searching for a job for almost two months and a half. Spending a weekend in my hometown, I met a friend and she told me she knew someone who can get me a job.
What Platforms have you been working on? Only Stava, or elsewhere, too? Have you been working long?
I work for Pyszne.pl, and we’re subcontractors for Stava. I had never been working in a similar company or anything like it. I signed up at the end of last year.
How do you work? On a bicycle, moped, or maybe a car?
We have company cars. Mostly Skoda Fabia now. We should be filling them up using petrol cards. Sadly, the cards haven’t been working properly these days, so we have to pay with our own money. Theoretically the money is reimbursed, but… it sucks. Perhaps cycling or using an e-scooter would be better.
Formally, do you have a contract. If so, what kind, and with who?
When it comes to the type of contract, we are all on the contract of mandate (although I know they also accept B2B aggreements). It’s a year’s contract, if I remember well. Lately, the company renamed, and we had to sign new contracts, with the company Asperiks… or Asterix, at least it sounds like this.
Do you enjoy this work? Is there anything interesting in it?
Do I enjoy the work? Yes, I must admit I love it. I like what I do – driving daily, with a car that isn’t mine, on fuel that’s not mine, and being paid for it. This is the pleasant side of the work.
And what is interesting? To be honest – the interesting part is people, who we meet every day: customers, many weird situations; and, well, our co-workers. Whenever there are no orders coming, we see each other, chat, talk shit about the customers or the company – just anything.
The reason we’re talking, is that you wrote to us about the issue with your pay. Can you tell us, what it’s about?
Yes, I wrote to you about my pay. I have a contract of mandate, with an hourly rate of 21.17 zloty, plus 2.51 zloty for each completed order. During my 8-9-hour working day, I deliver 20-22 orders on average, and I’m not the only one. I’m not a slacker. It’s just that the orders aren’t there.
When I got hired, I easily did thirty orders per day or more. When I went to work recently, it wasn’t even two orders in an hour. So my hourly pay would amount to 25 or 26 zloty.
And then the other time, I my Sunday would start at 10:30. I came on time, but my first order wouldn’t come up until 12:00. I waited an hour and a half in the car park, waiting there and struggling with the app, because our contract includes a provision allowing them to freeze my pay when the GPS on our work phone has no connection.
In that hour and a half, if I remember well, I had to restart the app every five minutes, because my GPS would go off. Otherwise I would only be paid for the initial five minutes.
Did you talk to anyone from work about it?
We talk all the time and we complain about it constantly, with my workmates. We discussed everything that was possible. We even tried to write to the administration, the work inspection (PIP). All they told us was that their inspection found no irregularities.
Lately I made a spreadsheet with my hourly pay, the working hours, the number of orders and the rate per order. I calculated I was almost two and a half thousand zloty short of the minimum wage.
So… yes. We talk about it all the time.
And how did you contact the work inspection (PIP)? Did you call? Did you visit them? You told me that you wrote them a letter, too, didn’t you?
We contacted PIP in writing. I wrote to the Poznan chapter of the work inspection myself, and I got a reply after about two weeks, saying I wasn’t being specific enough – I didn’t cite the specific reason or the object of the inspection.
Frankly, that surprised me, because I had written plainly, that I wasn’t agreeing with such a low hourly wage and that we were being paid less than the regulations on minimum wage specify.
And what followed?
I didn’t reply to that letter, because the work inspection required that I share my personal data with the employer. And I knew from other co-workers, that the ones that did so would be sacked after a week or two. This was the company’s punishment for trying to do something.
This conversation was originally published in our Report: What do you know about our work.
It was created with financial support from the National Institute of Freedom as part of the NOWEFIO Government Civic Initiatives Fund Program.