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04.09.2026 14:47

“You get nothing without even asking” PAM sees no grounds for continuing negotiations with Wolt on couriers’ terms and conditions of employment

No progress was made today either towards the goal of a living wage and decent working conditions when PAM and Wolt negotiated on couriers’ terms and conditions of employment.


PAM’s aim in the negotiations has been to improve couriers’ position, including pay and working conditions.

— The pay per task should be reasonable and waiting time compensated. Use of own vehicles and equipment should also be compensated, says Ronja Marjander, a PAM lawyer involved in the negotiations.

— At the heart of the negotiations is fair compensation model for the full job of couriers. A sustainable long-term solution benefits couriers, customers, and society, says Papy Nkunda, chair of PAM Couriers Finland.

The negotiations have been going on for almost three years.

— During all this time, Wolt has not made a proposal that would guarantee a living wage. We are so far apart that there is no point in continuing the negotiations. You get nothing without even asking, says Juha Ojala, Collective Bargaining Manager at PAM.

— We will continue working to improve the situation of couriers and, if there are no other options, we’ll do it through the courts, says Marjander.

Rights that should already exist

A key problem in improving couriers’ working conditions and pay is that they have been misclassified as self-employed which means they are not protected by labour legislation. In the Nordic labour market model, alongside legislation, collective agreements guarantee minimum terms and conditions of employment for employees.

According to Marjander, the saddest part is that most of the issues now being negotiated should already be rights enjoyed by couriers who are employees.

— Wolt’s proposals have been such that couriers working as employees could even end up with less money than those currently working as self-employed couriers. The aim seems to be to encourage couriers to continue choosing self-employment, Marjander says.

The goal is proper legislation on platform work

Various courts have ruled that couriers are employees. Normally, after a court ruling, a company is expected to change its practices to comply with the ruling.

— Instead, Wolt has repeatedly changed its practices just enough to allow it to continue its previous model based on self-employed couriers. It applied to have last year’s decision by the Supreme Administrative Court overturned and promised to employ 100 couriers out of a total of 10,000. As far as we know, the number of couriers employed by Wolt has not come close even to this figure.

— Complying with Finnish employment legislation does not appear to be Wolt’s goal, Marjander says.

The EU Platform Work Directive, adopted in 2024, also recognises the problems caused by the misclassification of people working through platforms. The Directive requires Member States to clarify the situation and put sufficient structures in place to correct misclassification.

In PAM’s view, the Finnish Government’s draft legislation on platform work barely meets the minimum requirements of the Directive. It does not improve the position of platform workers or make it easier to correct misclassification.

The proposed legislation appears to protect platform companies more than platform workers.

— We are doing everything we can to ensure that the legislation on platform work improves the position of platform workers instead of effectively making the current situation permanent, Marjander says.

Keywords:

Platform economy

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