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Home » PAM is negotiating collective agreement for Wolt couriers – goal is a predictable and fair minimum wage and basic rights of working life in Finland
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13.02.2026 10:30

PAM is negotiating collective agreement for Wolt couriers – goal is a predictable and fair minimum wage and basic rights of working life in Finland

Service Union United PAM is negotiating with the platform company Wolt on a collective agreement for couriers in an employment relationship.

Couriers have organised within PAM in their own union branch, PAM Couriers Finland. A representative of the branch is involved in the negotiations. The negotiations are at an early stage.

— We are negotiating a collective agreement for Wolt couriers. Wolt has announced that it will hire a small number of couriers into an employment relationship. Some of these couriers have already started work. Their terms and conditions of employment are currently poor, as there is no collective agreement, says Juha Ojala, Collective Bargaining Mananger at PAM.

Last week, PAM revealed that the real hourly earnings of couriers working as entrepreneurs is between 4 and 6 euros per hour. This week, YLE reported on the terms and conditions of Wolt couriers who have already started working in an employment relationship. These follow the entrepreneur model. Wages are only paid for delivery time, and there is no compensation for using one’s own work equipment.

— It is completely clear to us that the pay must take into account the time when the courier is available to the employer and waiting for new orders. The employer’s obligations must also be like those of other employers in Finland. For example, the courier must be paid compensation for using their own equipment, such as a car or scooter, Ojala states.

Rush hours are typical in many service sectors, for example in the restaurants and in retail. At times there are more customers and it’s busy; at other times it is quieter.

— In the service sectors, flexible working time and pay systems have been agreed, but so that they are sustainable for the workers. Courier work is not significantly different from this.

The Supreme Administrative Court has in a precedent stated that Wolt couriers are in an employment relationship. Wolt and Foodora have not complied with the decision.

— All couriers who are not genuine entrepreneurs should be in an employment relationship in line with the Supreme Administrative Court’s precedent. If a collective agreement is concluded, it must be applied to all couriers who are in reality in an employment relationship.

The renting out of accounts to substitutes has raised much public discussion.

— In an employment relationship, the starting point is always that the work is done by the employee personally. This prevents the exploitation of substitute couriers who rent accounts, ensures that the real person carrying out the delivery is known, and also avoids data protection problems. These are important issues also in relation to the government’s proposed legislation on home delivery of alcohol. There should be a requirement that the person delivering alcohol is in an employment relationship, Ojala notes.

PAM has negotiated with Wolt before, but the negotiations were stopped because the level of compensation proposed by Wolt would not have genuinely improved the couriers’ income. In public, Wolt’s CEO Marianne Vikkula has said publicly that the company cares “very, very much” about the satisfaction of its couriers.

— If Wolt truly cares about the satisfaction of those who generate its results, it must comply with the Supreme Administrative Court’s precedent and guarantee couriers a fair and predictable minimum wage and the basic rights of working life in Finland, Ojala says.

Keywords:

Platform economy

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