Furthermore, platforms often do not provide adequate personal protective equipment, forcing workers to operate in adverse weather conditions with increased accident risks. As it was argued by a participant working in a platform: “You can’t complete a 150-kilometer ride in central Athens with just a regular biker’s helmet; a full-face helmet is necessary. In 2022, we tragically lost three freelancers to facial skull injuries. Shouldn’t delivery shifts include breaks to prevent accidents?”.
In addition, management unilaterally sets work schedules and pay rates, or performance evaluations without negotiating or consulting with motorbike delivery drivers and their unions. A freelancer delivery worker, who dislikes working in local fast-food stores, argued: “Small shops are having trouble finding delivery workers without papers because e-food pays better. But this might not last long. We’ve already seen our earnings drop, and they mightgo down even more in the future”.
A motorcycle courier involved in an anarchist-leaning union focused on delivery and courier services, which has been active for nearly two decades, stated: “Working in delivery feels like navigating through hell. Finding someone who pays 4 euros and provides insurance makes you feel like a king. Mostfood delivery workers are migrants”.
As such, for migrant delivery workers, the dominant business model especially in food delivery creates even tougher working conditions and rules of exploitation. As an interviewed participant mentioned: “We are seeing instances oftrafficking. A big digital platform provides ID codes not just to freelancers, but also to subcontractors. It’s like a slave market—they give 100 mobile phones to these subcontractors, who then rent them out to economic migrants. For example, they might give 100 codes to a popular person from Pakistan, who then distributes them to 100 fellow countrymen. Someone elsefrom Bangladesh does the same with another 100 Bangladeshis. Another one does this with Albanians. A mobile phone might be shared with four Pakistanis living in a small apartment in the area ofKypseli. In this way, a single phone is being used 24 hours a day. The platform faces no risk because the subcontractors bear all the responsibility. Last year, there was a fatal accident that we reported. However, even ifan accident occurs, it’s not considered a workplace accident because the individual is not an employee but a freelancer”.
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L. KRETSOS AND V. CHARITSIS