Just Eat in October announced around 500 job cuts, according to the Syndicom union.
Keystone-SDA
Faced with the threat of redundancies, Just Eat delivery riders in Zurich and the neighbouring Glatt Valley walked out on Sunday, the busiest day for orders. Their main demand was for permanent jobs.
More than half of the shifts at lunchtime and in the evening were cancelled due to the strike, a spokesperson for the Syndicom trade union told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Sunday. The spokesperson added that staff at other delivery centres had also expressed their willingness to take part in the strike.
The strike affected the lunchtime and evening shifts until 10pm and was scheduled to last one day. “We are striking because we want to negotiate,” the spokesperson said. At the time, there was no indication from the employer that it was willing to negotiate.
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According to the trade union, the employees had taken this decision on Thursday after their protest action at the end of October had proved ineffective. The trigger was the mass redundancy announced by Just Eat a few days earlier, the union said. According to the workforce, around 500 couriers are facing redundancy.
The employees are demanding an end to the job cuts, a business model offering permanent employment, and an extension of the consultation process until November 30. It was not immediately clear whether the strike would continue at other locations in the coming days.
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The food delivery service Just Eat had justified the reorganisation back in October by citing changing customer needs. Demand for deliveries is increasingly spread throughout the day and extends into the night.
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With permanently employed couriers and shift schedules set two weeks in advance, this flexibility could not be guaranteed.
In cities such as Zurich, Bern, Basel and Winterthur, self-employed couriers are therefore to be deployed. Couriers in western Switzerland, however, will remain on permanent contracts due to a court ruling.
+ How we produce news in English
Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist.
