Targeted KV protest

Bike messengers want to strike during European Championship matches

Domestic food delivery staff (symbolic image) will be on strike again at times in the coming weeks.(Bild: Anton Gvozdikov - stock.adobe.com)

Due to months of stalled negotiations on the collective agreement for bicycle delivery workers, food delivery workers will be going on strike again in the coming weeks - this time specifically during the ÖFB matches at the European Football Championships. 

Protests will take place in Vienna, Graz, Salzburg and Klagenfurt next Monday and on June 21 and 25 - in the evenings from 5.30 p.m. to 10 p.m., i.e. during the Austrian games. This was announced by the vida trade union on Friday.

CLA negotiations have been stalled for months
It is a scandal that there is enough money for UEFA sponsoring, but not for a wage increase for the employees, complains Markus Petritsch, vida chairman of the street department, in a press release. The union is demanding a wage increase of 8.7 percent, while the employers' offer is 5.8 percent.

"When we call for an inflation compensation for bicycle messengers, we are not talking about luxury or putting money aside. Rather, we are talking about the fact that work must not make people poor and should make a good life possible," says the vida trade unionist.

Strikes again and again
Negotiations between employer and employee representatives in the sector have been at a standstill for months, with strikes taking place time and again. However, many bicycle messengers are not even covered by the collective agreement.

There are around 4,500 bicycle couriers in Austria, and only a good 2,000 of them are employed under the collective agreement. Lieferando in particular employs its staff in accordance with the collective agreement, whereas at Foodora almost all delivery staff are freelancers. Wolt, which is only represented in Vienna, also only employs self-employed and freelance workers.