Turkey's biggest food delivery service Yemeksepeti blocks union labor contract

The biggest food delivery service in Turkey, Yemeksepeti, blocked a labor contract for their motorcycle drivers, robbing thousands of workers who work for a minimum wage of legal protection. The company also refuses to support employees if they have an accident on the job, workers said.

Thursday January 28 2021 02:25 pm

Yemek Sepeti Nevzat Aydın poses with employees to promote their grocery delivery service Banabi.

Serkan Alan / DUVAR

Turkey's top food delivery website Yemeksepeti blocked a labor contract that their unionized motorcycle delivery employees were planning on signing, robbing thousands of employees who work under risky conditions of minimum wage of protection.

The company switched the legal registration of the employees at some of its branches to "office personnel," thus robbing the unionized workers of their ability to sign onto the contract with the freight workers' union Nakliyat-İş.

“We're delivery workers but our area of work was changed to office work. They butchered our union process," said one Yemeksepeti employee who wished to remain anonymous.

The workers reportedly get paid minimum wage, 2,700 Turkish Liras, plus one lira per delivery, and only received a 315 lira raise for the new year, which is why many workers sought help from other unions to improve their working conditions.

"Warehouse managers pressure us, they threaten employees with moving them if they join a union," the workers said. "Some people were sent off to really far away warehouses so that they'd quit."

Additionally, the company doesn't help workers if they have an accident, even though they spend hours on motorcycles risking their well-being, the worker added.

The union administration has appealed the change in the workers' registration and urged the public to support their resistance against the company's poor working conditions.