The European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) and the European Federation of Food, Agriculture, and Tourism Trade Unions (EFFAT) have issued a stark warning: the Bicycle messenger delivery sector is spiralling into a “race to the bottom” that member states must halt immediately.
Following a high-level coordination meeting of affiliated trade unions representing riders across Europe, the two federations released a joint declaration calling on EU institutions and national governments to step in and end widespread social dumping and worker exploitation.
A sector in crisis despite incoming new legislation
The warning comes even as the deadline for transposing the 2024 Platform Work Directive (PWD) looms in December 2026. Despite this landmark legislation being on the horizon, unions report that business practices are deteriorating rather than improving.
Opaque recruitment models, illegal labour intermediation, and exploitative subcontracting chains are becoming the industry standard. This has left thousands of riders across Europe facing:
- Poverty wages and unrecorded working hours.
- Widespread job insecurity and mass redundancies.
- Significant health and safety risks on the road.
The “race to the bottom”: the case of Just Eat Takeaway
The joint declaration highlights a disturbing trend: even companies that previously championed direct employment models are being pressured to adopt exploitative practices to remain competitive.
A prominent example is Just Eat Takeaway, one of the few in the sector that employed many riders directly, which has recently pivoted toward “alternative” models. This includes introducing bogus self-employment in Austria and outsourcing core activities to third-party logistics companies in Germany. Such moves have already led to mass redundancies and the emergence of “gangmaster” practices.
Our demands: urgent reform needed now
The ETF and EFFAT, alongside their affiliates, are calling for four critical interventions to protect workers and ensure a level playing field:
- Swift Transposition of the PWD: National governments must urgently implement the Platform Work Directive, specifically Article 5, to combat bogus self-employment and Article 3 to establish liability in subcontracting.
- A New Directive on Subcontracting: The European Commission must propose a dedicated Directive to limit subcontracting, prohibit the contracting of core business activities, and introduce a system of joint and several liability.
- Promotion of Sectoral Collective Bargaining: Governments must support genuine collective bargaining and reject “yellow” agreements—sham deals with unrepresentative unions that only serve to legitimise bad practices.
“This situation is no longer sustainable,” the joint declaration concludes. The ETF and EFFAT stand in full solidarity with all food delivery workers who have seen their rights eroded by corporate greed and legal loopholes. It is time for the EU to ensure that work in the platform economy means decent work, not a race to the bottom.
