The delivery workers who work for Wolt and Glovo went on strike for three hours, announced the Delivery Workers’ Union – the Mladi plus Union. In the second work stoppage, the first one was carried out in mid-May, they again demand negotiations on the collective agreement.
They do not have exact data on the number of strikers in the Mladi plus union, but it is very likely that there were between 100 and 150, she told the Slovenian Press Agency Mojca Žerak from the union. As she pointed out, even during this current strike, the delivery drivers themselves decided whether they would be logged into the application or not during this time.
During the strike, the union also gained more than 20 new members from the ranks of delivery workers, and their total number exceeded 150, she added.
On April 26, the delivery workers’ union is at its headquarters Volta and Head in Ljubljana submitted a request for accession to negotiations for the conclusion of a collective agreement, which would systemically regulate the position of delivery workers and repair now “extremely bad and unstable working conditions” delivery people.
The two companies refused the request, as there is no legal basis for negotiations and organizing delivery people. Answers “have clearly shown that they do not want to join negotiations and that they do not respect social dialogue”this time the union wrote.
According to them, these statements are not true. “No national or European legislation prevents them from doing this, on the contrary. As we stated at the first warning strike of delivery drivers, national and European legal acts enable collective negotiations and the conclusion of collective agreements also for self-employed and, in Slovenia, student workers,” they emphasized.
According to them, this is also confirmed by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the Ministry of Labour, which confirmed that “there are no legal restrictions on concluding a (corporate) collective agreement, in which the parties would freely agree on the contents that would be subject to the regulation of certain aspects of the relations between the parties, taking into account the free will of the individual employer and the representatives of the deliverers”.
Wolt: Only a small part of the delivery people went on strike
In their response, Wolt emphasized that only a small part of the delivery companies they work with were on strike, and their business was uninterrupted, just like during the previous strike.
“The satisfaction of delivery partners is extremely important, so we will continue the dialogue with them both individually and in groups. We believe that conversations are essential for constructive joint cooperation, so we will also continue conversations with all stakeholders, including the Youth Plus Union,” they wrote down.
Due to the non-recognition of the union and unwillingness to negotiate a collective agreement, more than 100 delivery workers stopped work for two hours on May 12.
Since even this did not soften Wolt and Glov, this time they joined the second warning strike, which lasted between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. However, the demand remains the same: approach to collective bargaining with the delivery workers’ union – the Mladi plus union.
“Deliverers joined the union because their working conditions are extremely bad, and the payment for the work done is always lower. In relation to Wolt and Glovo, despite this partnership cooperation, they are in a subordinate position, because Wolt and Glovo can unilaterally change the signed contracts and with this unilaterally affects the amount of payment for their work and other working conditions,” they underlined in the union.
In addition to poor working conditions, lower pay and unilateral interference in key aspects of their work, the reason for organizing delivery workers into a union was also the disregard of their comments by the management of Wolt and Glov.
“Wolt and Glovo in Slovenia had several small meetings with the delivery drivers, but they did not want to discuss the key and pressing problems that the delivery drivers are dealing with, they never concluded any agreement to improve the situation. These talks therefore had no effect on the height wages or working conditions,” they explained.
At Wolt, they emphasized once again that at the latest in a series of meetings with the Mladi Plus Trade Union, they explained that they support the work of the European Commission at the local and European level in providing guidelines for member states, which will pave the way for the self-employed to collective representation. “We agree that it is good that the self-employed also have the opportunity to represent their interests. However, Slovenian legislation does not regulate the area of concluding collective agreements for individuals who are not in an employment relationship,” they wrote.
If Wolt and Glovo do not join collective negotiations even after this strike, they will be forced to further intensify their union activities, the Youth Plus Union announced. Exactly how they intend to do this will be known after the assembly of members, Žerakova explained.
Source: Rtvslo
