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Home » PAM: Wolt plays a double game and ignores the Supreme Administrative Court’s ruling – only a fraction of couriers to gain employment protection, thousands left out
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07.10.2025 12:08

PAM: Wolt plays a double game and ignores the Supreme Administrative Court’s ruling – only a fraction of couriers to gain employment protection, thousands left out

Wolt announced today that it intends to employ around one hundred couriers under employment contracts. The remaining 6,000 couriers will continue in insecure positions.

In May this year, the Supreme Administrative Court (KHO) ruled that food couriers are employees, not independent entrepreneurs. Platform companies, however, have not complied with the ruling.

According to PAM President Annika Rönni-Sällinen, Wolt and other platform companies must apply the court’s decision to all of their couriers.

— It’s positive that Wolt will hire some couriers as employees and thereby follow the KHO ruling for this group of a hundred. But around 98 percent of the company’s couriers would still be left without the protection of employment. The ruling must be applied to all Wolt couriers — otherwise, the whole arrangement seems like whitewashing and double standards, says Rönni-Sällinen.

The hundred couriers to be hired later this year will be in a much more secure and better position compared to the roughly six thousand others working for Wolt.

— This creates a peculiar situation where couriers doing the same work are in completely different positions. A small minority would have the protection and basic rights of Finnish working life. For example, less than two percent of Wolt couriers would have the right to paid sick leave, while the rest would either stay home without pay or work while sick, Rönni-Sällinen notes.

Basic rights at work belong to all couriers

Couriers employed by Wolt will have statutory protection against dismissal, protection from unilateral changes to pay, and the right to holiday compensation and sick pay. All of these are lacking for couriers treated as independent contractors.

As an employer, Wolt must also pay all employer contributions — including pension and social security payments — and provide work equipment to employed couriers.

— It’s unfair that only a small group of couriers receive the basic rights of working life while the rest are left in uncertainty, says Papy Nkunda, chair of PAM Couriers Finland, the couriers’ branch of PAM.

PAM also expects Wolt to pay appropriate compensation to employed couriers who use their own vehicles for work.

PAM ready to negotiate a collective agreement for employed couriers

Wolt also stated today that it aims to reach a collective agreement with PAM. PAM and PAM Couriers Finland negotiated with Wolt for more than a year during 2023–2024 about the working conditions of couriers.

However, in December 2024 PAM suspended the negotiations because Wolt’s proposed pay levels would not have genuinely improved the couriers’ situation.

According to PAM’s Head of Collective Bargaining Juha Ojala, PAM is ready to negotiate a collective agreement for employed couriers.

— We are ready to negotiate if the company genuinely wants to improve its workers’ livelihoods and security. After the KHO ruling, it is absolutely clear that the only option on the table is a collective agreement for employees. As a union, we will not enter into any agreements that contradict the Supreme Administrative Court’s decisions, Ojala states.

Ojala also questions Wolt’s claims about “unclear regulation.”

— In our view, the situation is clear. The Supreme Administrative Court made its decision in May, and that should settle the matter. Wolt’s plan to hire couriers as employees proves that employment is a fully appropriate form for courier work. The next step is for the company to apply the court’s ruling to all of its couriers, says Ojala.

Keywords:

Platform economy

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