PAM taking case of member who worked as food courier to court
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Service Union United PAM is taking legal action over the existence of a food courier’s employment relationship. The action was filed at the District Court of Helsinki on Thursday 8 July.
PAM is taking the case of a member who worked as a food courier for the platform company Wolt Oy to the District Court. The action is about whether a food courier can be considered to be in an employment relationship with their employer. It is also about claims under the Working Hours Act and the Annual Holidays Act that PAM considers the employee is entitled to.
“PAM and our member who worked as a food courier consider that the job constitutes an employment relationship and the member was de facto in an employment relationship with Wolt. The action calls for the existence of an employment relationship to be confirmed and payment of claims under the Working Hours Act and the Annual Holidays Act. The action was filed at the
District Court of Helsinki today”, says PAM’s Legal Manager Arja Pohjola.
The background to the action is the two statements on the scope of the Working Hours Act issued by the Labour Council of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment on 5 October 2020 about whether there was an employment relationship between food couriers and both Wolt Oy and Foodora Oy. The Council considered that the characteristics of employment relationships laid out in Chapter 1, Section 1 of the Working Hours Act were met and thus the couriers were in an employment relationship with the company. And therefore it was also considered that the Working Hours Act should be applied.
“The Labour Council’s statement is in general terms and is not directly binding on companies. That’s why in this case it’s necessary to take our member’s case to court. It’s important for PAM that employment relationships are not disguised as something they are not”, Pohjola concludes.