2023-09-21 19:46:34
Independent delivery drivers working for the Frichti delivery platform, in receivership, have started a strike, protesting against the abrupt end of their service contract.
“We have been on strike since September 19,” Vazoumana Kedas Meite, a 24-year-old deliveryman, explains to AFP, that is, since Frichti’s letter announcing to independent delivery men that the company, for lack of being able to present a plan for continuation, “would probably be liquidated as of September 27”, the date on which the Paris commercial court will rule on the future of the delivery platform.
“We are not warned in time, we have families to manage,” protests Kouadio Kouame, another deliveryman from the Levallois hub (Hauts-de-Seine). The latter assures that there are 165 of them blocking six sites (Levallois, Bagnolet and four in Paris).
Frichti “explains to us that the service contract ends on Monday September 25”, relates Mr. Meite, who requests “compensation”.
Two takeover offers were defended in court on September 11, one filed by a competitor, La Belle Vie, and another, joint, from Flink SE and Guillaume Luscan, co-founder of Cajoo, an AFP journalist noted.
More employees than self-employed
“We are considered self-employed, but not at all, we are like employees,” denounces Vazoumana Kedas Meite. “We force you to do errands that you don’t want to do, we take orders for 20 cents” and the account is suspended “if you take a two-week vacation,” he testifies.
“Frichti gives us slots during the week,” says an undocumented deliveryman who preferred to keep his identity secret and who says he is “panicked”.
This message from Frichti constitutes “disguised economic dismissal”, judges lawyer Kevin Mention who defends delivery workers who have taken legal action to obtain a reclassification of their employment contract.
The delivery start-up was placed in receivership in March, at the same time as Getir and Gorillas, the three entities belonging to the Turkish delivery giant Getir, which had announced throwing in the towel in the face of tougher regulations. The Getir and Gorillas brands were liquidated in July.
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