The strike at Wolt food Delivery Company highlights the modern slave trade in our country

 

21 December 2022, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

AKEL once again expresses its solidarity with the working delivery drivers at the Wolt delivery company who, with their struggle and with the Pancyprian Federation of Labour (PEO) on their side, are demanding their rights and dignity. At the same time, it stresses that the strike of the delivery drivers at Wolt has highlighted wider and deeper issues that are prevail in the country’s labour landscape.

Firstly, it is self-evident that the process of granting work permits to students and asylum seekers is not only extremely problematic, but also points directly to human trafficking. Permits are granted without the application of any collective agreements and without any subsequent monitoring, with the result that the employers-agents ‘hand over’ workers to other employers. In other words, instead of combating the illegal activity of “agents” and intermediaries, the state becomes an accomplice in a modern slave trade.

At the same time, there is an urgent need to regulate labour relations on digital platforms. Since the beginning of the year, AKEL had asked the Ministry to provide data on the situation in the relevant sector. At the same time, in the ex-officio examination of the issue held in the Parliamentary Labour Committee on the initiative taken by AKEL, we demanded that workers on digital platforms be safeguarded through the approval of legislation, setting as a principle that these platforms must be recognised as the main employers. The government, however, with the backing of the employers’ associations, refused and continues to refuse to give them any legislative recognition.

Together with the collective militant action of the workers themselves, AKEL will continue to take initiatives and demand strict measures from the state to protect workers.