Service Union United PAM: Wolt fails to comply with Supreme Administrative Court ruling
Food delivery company Wolt plans to employ around one hundred of its couriers as staff. According to the Service Union United (PAM), the move looks like whitewashing and double standards.
Wolt announced yesterday that it intends to hire about a hundred couriers as employees. In May this year, Finland’s Supreme Administrative Court (KHO) ruled that food couriers are employees, not independent contractors. PAM says, however, that platform companies have failed to comply with the ruling.
PAM’s president, Annika Rönni-Sällinen, said in a press release that Wolt and other platform companies must apply the court’s decision to all of their couriers.
“It’s a positive step that Wolt is hiring couriers as employees and, in these hundred cases, is following the Supreme Administrative Court’s decision. But about 98 percent of the company’s couriers are still left outside employment protection. The court’s ruling must apply to all Wolt couriers – otherwise the whole thing reeks of whitewashing and double-dealing,” Rönni-Sällinen said.
The hundred couriers to be hired by the end of the year will be in a much more secure and advantageous position compared to Wolt’s roughly six thousand other couriers.
“This creates a bizarre situation where people doing the exact same job are treated completely differently. A small minority will enjoy the protections and basic rights of Finnish working life. For example, fewer than two percent of Wolt couriers will have the right to paid sick leave, while the rest must either take unpaid leave or work while sick,” Rönni-Sällinen added.
PAM: Basic labour rights must apply to all couriers
Couriers employed by Wolt will have legal employment protections such as protection from unfair dismissal, safeguards against unilateral changes to pay, and rights to holiday compensation and paid sick leave – all of which are denied to couriers working as self-employed contractors.
As an employer, Wolt would also cover all statutory employer contributions, including pension and social security payments, and provide work equipment for its employed couriers.
“It’s unfair that only a small group of couriers will receive the basic rights of working life, while the rest are left in uncertainty,” said Papy Nkunda, chair of PAM Couriers Finland, the couriers’ branch within the union.
PAM also expects Wolt to compensate its employed couriers appropriately if they use their own vehicles for deliveries.
PAM ready to negotiate a collective agreement for employed couriers
Wolt also said today it aims to reach a collective bargaining agreement with PAM. PAM and PAM Couriers Finland negotiated with Wolt for over a year during 2023–2024 on employment terms for couriers.
In December 2024, PAM suspended the talks, saying Wolt’s proposed compensation model would not have genuinely improved couriers’ working conditions.
According to PAM’s head of collective bargaining, Juha Ojala, there is no obstacle to starting negotiations for a collective agreement covering employed couriers.
“We are ready to negotiate if the company truly wants to improve the livelihood and security of its workers. After the Supreme Administrative Court’s decision, it’s crystal clear that the only option on the table is a collective agreement for employed couriers. As a union, we will not make agreements that contradict the court’s ruling,” Ojala said.
Ojala also criticised Wolt’s claims about ‘regulatory uncertainty’.
“In our view, the situation is clear. The Supreme Administrative Court made its ruling in May – that’s the end of the debate. Wolt’s plan to hire couriers as employees shows that an employment relationship is perfectly suitable for delivery work. The next step is for the company to extend that compliance to all of its couriers,” Ojala concluded.
