Planned e-moped conversion in Vienna threatens the existence of food delivery workers
vida demands: Platform operators must finally be held accountable – costs for vehicles, training and insurance must be covered.
Bicycle messengers
The City of Vienna is planning a new legal regulation for cycling, which would have a massive impact on the working reality of thousands of food delivery workers and bicycle messengers. In the future, e-mopeds with low engine power, which were previously on the road on cycle paths, are to be considered classic motor vehicles. This means: registration, insurance, moped license, helmet obligation - and no more use of the cycle paths.
What at first glance sounds like more safety in road traffic threatens to become an economic catastrophe for many riders.
Precarious workers should pay – platforms are left out
"The new legal regulation does not fight the cause, but only the symptom," warns Markus Petritsch, chairman of the road department in the trade union vida. This is because driving with high time pressure is not just for fun, but because the payment model is based on piece wages: delivery drivers are paid per delivery, not per hour.
A large proportion of employees work as so-called "freelancers" – without social security, without a say, without planning security. The vehicles are the property of the couriers themselves - bought or leased on their own account. A legal change would make many of these e-mopeds effectively worthless: The costs for moped license, registration, insurance and replacement vehicle significantly exceed the current value.
"It cannot be that precarious workers should bear the costs of a change in the law while platforms continue to make profits."
vida demand: finally hold platform operators accountable
The trade union vida is therefore calling for clear legal regulations and the implementation of the EU Platform Work Directive in Austria in order to no longer shift responsibility to the weakest.
Specifically, vida demands:
- Platform operators will have to pay for the costs incurred by the changeover – i.e. for new vehicles, disposal or replacement of the old e-mopeds, as well as for training and insurance.
- In the case of traffic fines , platforms must be held accountable in the same way as other companies in the transport sector.
- A mandatory basic commercial qualification for the small transport and courier industry ("city logistics") must be introduced – at the expense of the clients, i.e. the platform operators.
- The EU Platform Directive must be transposed into national law in order to push back precarious employment relationships and create fair working conditions.
An end to exploitation in the delivery industry
"Instead of making politics on the backs of the riders, we finally need clear rules for those who bear the actual responsibility: the platforms," Petritsch emphasizes. Without social security, without fair pay and without proper employment, the pressure in the system will continue to increase – with fatal consequences for road safety, health and social justice.
