Workers on Wolt's delivery platform have announced a protest to be held on Thursday in Zagreb, aiming to draw attention to the dramatic drop in income, challenging working conditions, and the role of so-called aggregators, intermediaries between couriers and the app itself.

The gathering begins at the Fairgrounds, from where a column of cyclists, scooter drivers, and cars will head toward Wolt's headquarters, where they will present their demands and request talks with company representatives, writes Dnevno.hr.

“We will start around ten o’clock, and we will arrive in front of Wolt’s office around eleven. We hope they will receive us. We want to be heard,” said Nader Wahsh, one of the organizers, to Nova TV. Couriers point out that their earnings have almost halved over the past year. Wahsh states that until recently, by working ten hours a day five to six days a week, they could earn a gross income of around two thousand euros, but now for the same commitment they earn around eight hundred euros net. “Before, the base rate was 14.5 kuna. Today it is only 1.37 euros, and for cyclists even less. We are demanding a return to the previous rate, a 2 euro base, 40 cents per kilometer for the first five kilometers and 60 cents for each additional one,” Wahsh explains.

Additional difficulties, he points out, are caused by the large number of couriers and the drop in the number of orders. “If you don’t have a delivery, that does not count as working time. That means that in order to earn money, you have to be active for fourteen hours a day,” he warns. He particularly points to the problem of aggregators, private companies that act as intermediaries between the platform and workers, stating: “Without them, Wolt would employ only the people it needs”.

Wahsh also points out that around eighty percent of couriers are foreign workers. Since they depend on residence permits, they are not able to freely express dissatisfaction. “Foreign workers, if they lose their job, must immediately find another one or leave Croatia. They do not have the freedom to fight for better conditions,” he said. Particularly problematic, he emphasizes, is that couriers have health insurance exclusively during deliveries, not while waiting for an order.

“Imagine something falling on your head while you are sitting in a park waiting for a delivery, you are not insured. And when we work in the rain, on holidays, or at night, we do not get anything extra for that. The customer is charged a surcharge, but the courier is not,” Wahsh added.

Among the twelve demands that the couriers will submit to Wolt’s management is the abolition of aggregators, as well as the introduction of a direct employment relationship with the platform. “If we abolish aggregators, Wolt will employ only those they really need,” Wahsh concludes.