Delivery boys and couriers in Greece have launched a 24-hour strike on Thursday with a series of demands to improve their working conditions and a labor framework to secure their profession.
They demand that employers provide them with a corporate motorcycle, protective helmet and clothing and to pay for fuel and motorcycle maintenance, to have a specific job description and to have their profession recognized as ‘hazardous’ work and collective labor contracts.
They also demand to be paid for overtime work incl extra payment for work over the weekend and the public holidays as for other profession in the private sector.
In a statement issued by their union SVEOD, they said that they deliver goods and services in constant danger and by any weather conditions. “Couriers and delivery boys are constantly exposed to poorly maintained roads, noise and pollution, adverse weather conditions, often fatal accidents, muscular and skeletal disorders and anxiety.”
15 people have lost their lives in traffic accidents during work in the last two years. According to a support group in Thessaloniki, the high accident rate is due to 15-hour work per shift and the high demand of deliveries they have to execute.
According to SVEOD, the classification of their profession as hazardous work will grant them higher wages and a lower retirement age.
The strikers organized a motorcycled protest in Athens and Thessaloniki.
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