Maria Eracleous
The Labor Disputes Division of the Department of Labor will host a meeting on Wednesday morning to resolve the working conditions and demands of Wolt distributors, who have been on strike since last Monday. The Ministry will invite the trade unions SUC and PEO, as well as the employers' side, to a discussion to resolve the conflict. The trade unions have already sent a request for mediation to the Labour Relations Department. Who will represent the employer side is still a mystery. The nine companies that have a partnership with Wolt for distribution services, the two guilds SSEK and PEO, and Wolt will all cooperate, according to Antis Apostolou, deputy director of the Labour Inspectorate Department, who spoke to "K." The main issue facing the distributors is that there is no clear framework or set of working conditions for the workers in the industry, regardless of who the representatives of the employers' side are.
A murky system
Panikos Argyridis, General Organiser of the FCC, told K that the issue is having more transparency in the working conditions of the sector's workers and avoiding exploitation by middlemen. "There is no clear framework for worker rights and obligations; it is a murky system," he said. He stated that, in addition to resolving the current dispute, the type of employment is also required. Efforts will be made to resolve the labor dispute and regulation through specific proposals for employment on platforms, with the goal of introducing elements of transparency, precariousness, avoiding exploitation, and achieving decent employment conditions.
It will be recalled that the first discussion on the subject took place in the House of Representatives Labor Committee at the beginning of the year, in March 2022. It hasn't been brought up since then. However, both the chairman of the Committee, Andreas Kaukalias, and the unions intend to reopen the discussion of the issue during the next sessions of the relevant parliamentary committee in early 2023.
[This article was translated from its Greek original]
