Delivery Workers' Status: UGTT Demands Involvement in Labor Code Revision

Tunisia's powerful UGTT labor union has voiced strong reservations regarding recent government announcements on the status of platform workers, demanding its immediate and mandatory involvement in the revision of the labor code. The union insists that platform workers, including food delivery couriers and ride-sharing drivers, must be guaranteed equitable wages, social security coverage, and accident insurance.

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The central trade union demands its immediate and mandatory integration into the technical committees responsible for drafting sectoral draft laws, emphasizing the imperative of its involvement in the project of rewriting the revision of the Labor Code intended to frame the legal status of digital platform workers (food delivery workers, VTC drivers, couriers).

In a sharply worded official statement, the UGTT's social protection and informal sector department stressed the imperative of integrating union representatives into technical committees tasked with drafting sector-specific laws. The union has historically championed the regulation of this workforce, aiming for legal recognition of their employee status, a fair minimum wage, universal health coverage, and mandatory coverage for work-related accidents and occupational diseases.

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it warns that no reform will be validated without a strictly participatory approach.

The UGTT appears to be responding to statements made by Minister of Social Affairs Issam Lahmar, expressing concern over unilateral decision-making processes. While acknowledging the necessity of updating national legislation to align with the evolving "gig economy," the union warns that no reform will be validated without a strictly participatory approach.

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the UGTT sums up the ministry to respect Tunisia's international signature by complying with Convention No. 144 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), a 1976 text ratified by the Republic and which sanctifies the obligation of tripartite consultations (State, Employers, Union) which confirm the constitutional principles of decent work and social justice.

Furthermore, the UGTT is calling on the ministry to respect Tunisia's international commitments, specifically ILO Convention No. 144, which mandates tripartite consultations between the state, employers, and trade unions. This convention underpins the principles of decent work and social justice. The union fears that without its full participation, reforms could lead to a "watered-down labor code" that perpetuates the precarious conditions dictated by multinational delivery companies.

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fear the birth of 'a cut-rate labor code that walks in the footsteps of the precariousness dictated by multinational delivery companies.'