Yesterday [03.04.2025] the Trade Union operating at Pyszne.pl published an extensive statement regarding the changes taking place on this Platform. In it, the Union describes the current situation of people working as Delivery Drivers and Pyszne.pl’s policy regarding mass layoffs. We publish it in full below.
As everyone knows, in Poland we have two models of courier employment. Pyszne employs on a contract for services with an hourly rate, other platforms (Glovo/Uber/Wolt) pay only for completed orders and use pathological contracts (such as a vehicle rental agreement) that do not provide couriers with protection in the event of an accident, money in retirement or even minimal employment stability. Recently, there have been disturbing events that force us to ask whether Pyszne is not heading towards the Uberization of its model?
In February this year. The takeover of JustEatTakeaway (owner of Pyszne.pl) by Prosus, which owns, among other things, 28% of the shares of Delivery Hero (owner of Glovo), was announced. This is another step towards the consolidation of the industry, which, despite cuts in couriers’ wages, is unable to generate stable profits. The question is whether these changes will be disadvantageous for couriers?
In March this year, the JustEatTakeaway branch in Austria dismissed almost a thousand employees (mostly couriers), who, thanks to a collective agreement negotiated by trade unions, were guaranteed stable working conditions. Instead of offering normal work with an hourly rate, the company intends to push couriers into self-employment. Similar signals reach us from Germany, where the company is outsourcing deliveries to other entities offering worse employment conditions.
The direction of the changes is causing great concern; for years, the company has claimed that it supports normal employment of couriers. By autumn 2026, all EU countries are required to implement the provisions of the Platform Work Directive, the aim of which is to put an end to the pathological employment of couriers on the basis of bizarre contracts, not paying for the entire working time (but only for completed orders) and numerous negative phenomena (lack of insurance, sudden dismissals, lack of control over the operation of the algorithm). It is all the more strange that instead of preparing for the introduction of the new regulation, the company is moving towards making its operating model similar to Uber.
In Poland, hubs are being liquidated (most recently in Poznań). Recently, the trade union has been receiving disturbing news about cases of couriers being terminated and couriers who have worked for 18 months under Trenkwalder not being offered a transfer to Takeaway. According to information obtained from the company, it treats couriers working for Trenkwalder as temporary workers, whom it can fire if necessary, and then hire new ones when the demand arises. This is an unfavourable change in relation to the situation prevailing in the company before, when couriers working in a way that did not raise any objections were provided with some stability of employment.
The trade union is collecting information about cases of termination of contracts and not being offered a transfer to Takeaway. If you know anything, write to zzpyszne(at)konfederacjapracy.org.pl