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🇫🇮 Finland /Economy & Trade

PAM Breaks Off Nearly Three Years of Talks With Wolt

From Helsingin Sanomat · () Finnish

Translated from Finnish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • PAM ended negotiations with Wolt after nearly three years, saying the parties remained too far apart on a collective agreement for employed couriers.
  • The union seeks compensation for waiting time, personal equipment and travel, along with fair pay for each delivery; it says couriers have been wrongly classified as entrepreneurs.
  • Wolt said its latest proposal balanced improved courier conditions with flexibility and service continuity, while the union favored a traditional working-time model.

After almost three years of negotiations, Finland's Service Union United PAM has suspended talks with Wolt over the employment terms of food couriers. The union said the gap between the sides had become too wide to justify continuing.

We are so far apart that it is not worth continuing the negotiations. You get nothing by asking for nothing.

· Juha OjalaPAM's contract manager explained why the union suspended the talks.

“We are so far apart that it is not worth continuing the negotiations. You get nothing by asking for nothing,” PAM's contract manager Juha Ojala said in a statement. The talks concerned a collective agreement for couriers employed by the delivery company.

PAM wants couriers to receive compensation for waiting time, the use of their own work equipment and travel. It also seeks reasonable pay for each delivery. The union says efforts to improve couriers' working conditions and pay are blocked because they have been incorrectly classified as entrepreneurs, leaving them outside the protection of employment law.

We are still trying to improve the couriers' situation. If there are no other options, we will seek solutions through the courts.

· Ronja MarjanderThe PAM lawyer described the union's next possible avenue after negotiations ended.

“We are still trying to improve the couriers' situation. If there are no other options, we will seek solutions through the courts,” PAM lawyer Ronja Marjander said. Wolt expressed disappointment at the decision and argued that it appeared politically motivated, with the aim of influencing forthcoming platform-work legislation.

It appears that the decision to suspend the negotiations is politically motivated and above all aims to influence forthcoming platform-work legislation.

· Olli KoskiWolt criticized PAM's decision and linked it to upcoming legislation.

Wolt said its latest proposal fairly balanced better conditions for couriers with flexibility and continuity of service. “It is important to us to preserve couriers' freedom to decide their own working hours, while PAM would have wanted a traditional working-time model,” Wolt's director of public affairs, Olli Koski, said. The company said any solution needed to be sustainable for all sides over the long term.

It is important to us to preserve couriers' freedom to decide their own working hours, while PAM would have wanted a traditional working-time model.

· Olli KoskiWolt outlined the central disagreement over flexibility and working-time rules.
About this summary

Originally published by Helsingin Sanomat in Finnish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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