I remember spring 2017 at foodora.
The newly minted Head of Operations was a Rider himself 2 years earlier, later Rider Captain, and soon after Rider Manager. Now he found himself brooding over a list of employees for weeks, looking at their performance: How many orders per hour? Average travel speed? How long does it take the rider to complete the order? How long does it take him to accept them? Who was too slow in winter, who did not come to work when the weather was bad?
While he was making a career in the company, his former colleagues on the street complained about continuous worsening of their working conditions, less and less involvement, disregard of their rights, and increasingly precarious contracts. The company was growing.
The closure of our common room, the garage, where colleagues could also repair their bikes, was the last reason to organize our colleagues and set up a works council to curb the deterioration and regain their say. A few days after the election - the works council was not yet able to act - over 70 riders were dismissed in one day. The vast majority of them were freelancers, but there were also some real employees, some of whom also went to the works council elections.
However, the dismissals had nothing to do with the works council. It was spring and people went out to eat again instead of ordering. Order figures fell drastically. There was massive recruitment in the previous winter; anyone who had a smartphone and could cycle was suitable. In spring, it was sorted out, anyone who did not perform well enough in winter was replaced in spring. Because in the meantime, many new colleagues continued to be hired. A few months later, hardly anyone knew the works council or remembered the garage.
By the way, something similar happened in 2015 without keeping track of how many riders wanted to work how many hours. In spring 2016, there was therefore not enough work and growth stagnated. As a result, a large part of the workforce was converted to a freelance contract and, in addition to social benefits and special payments, also lost the right to elect a works council.
It is therefore a known problem that fewer orders are being ordered in spring. You could have planned better, or at least warned or prepared your colleagues for it. It would have been possible to create a transparent system, which is particularly important and how to proceed in case of hardship. The works council worked to prevent or at least alleviate such a wave of dismissals next year. Foodora therefore offered seasonal contracts next winter to prepare the riders. The controversial batch system was introduced, which also somewhat regulated the internal fleet market with the shifts. You'd think that this internal ranking would sort out employees almost by itself. Nevertheless, in the first spring after the pandemic, we again hear a wave of dismissals that suddenly and unexpectedly affects many colleagues, because the dismissals from freelancers are usually sent out without giving reasons.
For freelancers, there is no works council that must be informed before terminations and may be able to intervene.
However, we didn't know back then that the cancellation in spring 2017 should never have gone through like this, but we know it today!
If over 5% of the fleet is terminated in one fell swoop, this is considered a mass termination and must be reported to AMS in order to activate the AMS early warning system (§45a Arbeismarktförderungsgesetz). Mjam is of the opinion that this law does not apply to freelancers, but the AMS has already confirmed to us that it certainly applies to freelancers as well.
But who controls this if there is no works council that needs to be informed about it? In this case, the works council cannot do anything - provided that they are actually freelancers. Colleagues who depend on the job and have worked regularly accordingly could now contact the works council and the latter could object that there is in reality a real employment relationship and that the works council should have been informed of the dismissal and that the dismissal is therefore invalid. The company would probably disagree, whereupon these cases would be brought before the Labour and Social Court for a determination. However, this takes a bit longer and is not entirely certain whether it will work. If you want to try it out because you depend on the job and therefore work more like a real employee regularly, write to us via email, on facebook or Instagram
First and foremost, the following applies: If you quit last week, you're not alone. 150 colleagues were dismissed. This is a mass cancellation and must be reported to AMS what did not happen. Stay ready to work! The termination is legally ineffective.
The Chamber of Labour is informed, please get in touch with us and we will collect those affected to take action against this.
