“Slavery” – we would whip the messengers

Many have seen the pink messengers rushing by, but few know what happens behind the scenes.

Dennis Elyasi worked for two years at Foodora, and now talks about life as a “slave driver”.

– We would whip these people and had people checking us all the time, he says.

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With just a few clicks, today we get restaurant food delivered to the door.

Often it takes just under an hour before the delivery man knocks on the door with the still smoking boxes.

But for the person who pings, your meal is not as enjoyable.

– It was difficult, hectic and stressful. Besides the fact that they are poorly paid, there wasn’t much sympathy either, says Dennis Elyasi.

For two years, the 27-year-old worked at Foodora, the German delivery giant that is the market leader in its field. It was an imminent move to Stockholm and the dream of owning his own home made him accept the job.

Would shorten delivery times

He spent the first time as a messenger himself, but quickly advanced upwards.

– After about a week, I got a job as a traffic controller, which meant that I sat in front of a computer screen, answered in chats, helped customer service with various questions and kept track of the programs that took care of things.

Dennis takes part in the book “Slavdrivaren”, which will be published in September and is written by the author Anders Teglund.

The book is a sequel to “Cykelbudet” which was published in 2021, which depicts the job as a bicycle messenger at the pink company.

For Aftonbladet, Dennis testifies about how he and his colleagues had a great responsibility, but above all about the vulnerability of the messengers.

– It felt like we had eyes on the back of our necks the whole time. Our task was to whip up bids to shorten delivery times. If we didn’t do that, we had to answer to the managers. The whole situation was very stressful.

“Easily get them to do things”

Foodora has long been criticized for poor working conditions, and has been called out by the Swedish Work Environment Authority for insufficient knowledge about the working environment. Dennis signs it.

– It is a vulnerable industry as the majority of those who work there come from vulnerable countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It was very easy to get them to do things I had said no to. Like riding a bike when it was cold or stormy, he says and continues:

– It was like they had some kind of fear all the time about being honest with what they thought and thought. At the same time, I feel that they could complain about small things, to call in sick when their finger hurt or the weather was bad.

The situation often created disagreements between the messengers and the traffic controllers.

– From above, they wanted us to maintain a kind of jargon against the commandments. If you received a case from the bids, you must be quick to finish the case. Even if I had time to be helpful, I wouldn’t be.

“It’s about nice titles”

– If the courier does not want to make the delivery because of something that has happened, it is registered as an invalid absence. It was very common. About 50 a day who did not show up or were uncontactable despite having an agreed pass.

According to Dennis, car couriers receive approximately SEK 40 per stop. He estimates that you make around four stops per hour. He is also critical of how Foodora complies with the collective agreement.

– I feel that a lot is about various nice titles, but that in practice it means nothing. The working conditions do not look better, nor the salary.

“Exploiting people”

He describes his time at Foodora as both positive and negative.

– I think that they are like any gig industry where you employ many people but don’t pay very well. But the worst thing in my opinion is that these people are also in a dependent position, and may not know what their rights are.

– I see it as taking advantage of people, while they say they are offering people jobs. For example, students who come here to study. There are certainly those who have not experienced it at all like I have, but I don’t think this feels like a Swedish work model.

What change do you see would be needed to improve the situation?

– I think they should hire people with the right skills and training for this. Who make real decisions. Especially for the messengers who are out and about.

Daniel Gustafsson Raba is logistics manager at Foodora. He refutes the claim that the traffic controllers whip the bids.

– Instead, they act as support for the bids if they need support, help with the address or if the restaurant has not prepared the food in time. We have clear guidelines that you must adhere to, and a very important rule is that you must be respectful and not rush our bids.

He further notes that there are also no speed requirements for bids, as that would lead to more stress and carelessness.

– People with values ​​that do not agree with ours absolutely do not belong at Foodora. We are proud of our diversity and see it as a competitive advantage.

Foodora: Not low paid

He also believes that the bids are not low-paid.

– They have an average salary of over SEK 160 an hour, which is much more than many other jobs. Our car couriers have a guaranteed hourly wage of SEK 100 and then a commission per delivery.

Daniel Gustafsson Raba also refutes the claim that it was very easy to get the messengers to do things they didn’t want to.

– That employees who make their colleagues carry out unacceptable actions is not okay. Regarding weather, we have a weather policy, approved by the union, with clear guidelines when we let bids ride.

– Inappropriate behavior and jargon are not something we tolerate. It is clear that the person you spoke to has a wrong idea of ​​what the job entailed and that he wanted more mandate than you have in that role.

That the collective agreement is not followed is completely rejected.

– That is incorrect.

In conclusion, Daniel Gustafsson Raba believes that Foodora does not use labor that is already in a vulnerable position.

– On the contrary. We are very proud that as a single company in Sweden we have over 6,500 employees. We get people into the labor market and thereby reduce exclusion.