New important victory of Delivery workers of Greece as under the organized struggles and the strike mobilizations of the Union of Employees EFood Athens ratified agreement

• securing the right of salaried delivery workers to form their work programme
• secured the 5day – 8hour work week against Hatzidakis Law work-time deregulation!

In its statement the union notes:

“A new victory for our union that once again made the Hatzidakis law “an empty paper”!

We proved once again that militant organized struggles against the policy of governments and employers have results! Our big strike mobilisations have been successful. After tough negotiations, the bilateral agreement we had extracted from our 24-hour strike (on January 10) was ratified after the meeting at the labour inspectorate-SEPE with the company on how to determine the working schedule of the distributors’ employees. The key points provided for in the agreement are:

1. That all salaried delivery workers (whatever work contract 8-hour, 6-hour, 4-hour) will formulate through the application a fixed schedule of 1-4 weeks with consecutive days off if they wish.
2. That the 5day – 8hour work schedule is guaranteed, with no “regulation” of working hours (The “regulation”, according to the Hatzidakis Law (Law 4808), means overtime hours that are not paid but are offset against time off, apparently whenever the employer chooses).
3. The working hours will not be on a 24-hour basis but from 8:00 am to 1:00 am.
4. That priority will be given to colleagues with dependents (single parents, large families, families with three children, disabled persons, students), as well as to employees with chronic illnesses or other work.

After our continuous mobilizations and actions, the company’s decision to unilaterally define the program changed. Up to the last minute, colleagues had mobilized because we know that our militant participation and presence are a catalyst for developments. For the first time in the years of the union’s existence, the company finally comes to an agreement by putting its signature, something it has several times methodically, cruelly and provocatively avoided.

We believe that this development is a first step to continue the struggle for the signing of a Collective Labour Agreement with wage increases and guaranteed rights. A process that is already underway with negotiations and that we know very well that any positive outcome will depend on the participation in the union and the militant mobilizations, the strikes that we will organize in the coming period”.