WEBVTT

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One of my best friends comes from
Eastern Europe and works in construction.

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It's the same everywhere.

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He knows how it works.

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There are some legal jobs, but
if you come from Eastern Europe,

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you have to
work illegally.

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And our
bosses think:

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‘We can do that too’,
it's nice and cheap.

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But maybe not.

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There is no reason,

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why the delivery needs to be
on this side versus on this side.

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You know
what I mean?

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Right now, in this group
we all want to push to try,

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- this is our last chance at
Lieferando - to get on this side.

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I am Merle, a member of the
Lieferando Workers Collective

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and also member of
the works council

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of the Lieferando couriers
in Berlin and Potsdam.

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Today we have our
works meeting in Potsdam

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for the approximately 60 colleagues who
are now very likely to be made redundant

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before the end of this year.

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Lieferando says that they
need to become more agile.

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And of course, that just means
that they have found a way

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to make it even cheaper
than it already is.

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They dismiss their
directly employed curiers

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and re-hire them
via subcontractors

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and make them
work illegally.

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That means via
these subcontractors.

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Then there is another
sub-level and they provide

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people without contracts.

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These are people who work
completely without contracts,

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They do exactly
the same job,

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that we have
done so far.

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Delivering food
for Lieferando,

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and are not paid
paid per hour,

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have no
minimum wage,

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have no sick pay
payment in case of illness,

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have no holiday.

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This really means that
all labour rights are lost

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for the colleagues,
who probably

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be partly forced
to switch to Fleetlery,

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to this
subcontractor.

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Fleetlery is a company
based in Hamburg,

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who on their
website say,

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that they employ for 
Lieferando, Wolt and UberEats.

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In Berlin
we see above all,

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that it is about
another sub-level.

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The subcontractor then passes on
to another subcontractor

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and they then make
these really shady deals,

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where the colleagues work without
labour rights and without a contract.

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They get access
to the app,

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usually also after they
have paid a price.

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So sometimes you have to pay 50 €,
to get an account in the first place

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and then another
50 is taken away from the first salary.

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But we have also
heard from people

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that sums of 500 €
are deducted.

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And the wage payments,
work like this,

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that people are
very spontaneously

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contacted by these
fleet managers:

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"Today, 7pm in
Treptower Park,

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at such and such a place,
please come quickly,

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I don't want a mix
of people."

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And then you get
cash in your hand.

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And if you don't

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log in as much as
the fleet manager wants,

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meaning you are actually
available at any time

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to drive orders,

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you will simply be
kicked you out of the app.

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And then you are
fired somehow,

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but at the same time you are not
because there was no contract.

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But from one moment to the next
you are without a job.

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I am Horst

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and I am here

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to support the people
from Potsdam,

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so that they can
take matters into their own hands

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and say
what they want,

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because we will all be
affected by this termination.

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Not only
Potsdam, Hamburg,

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at some point it will also
be Berlin and others.

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And we will
then all

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have to work for
some other companies,

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who do not accept
our workers' rights

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and make us bogus self-employed
or employ us in some other way.

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And that will not
benefit any of us.

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We still get paid
when we are ill,

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we still have at least
minimum hours,

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which are contractually
guaranteed.

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For other companies,
among others Fleetlery,

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this will no longer
be the same.

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We stand around,
we don't get money.

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We can no longer
know any more,

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what we will have
at the end of the month.

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And that is...

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I'm a family man,
I have a wife and child.

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It's a horror not to know
how much money you'll have

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at the end of the month.

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With Lieferando we currently
can plan, we know:

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That comes at the end of the
month, we can count on that.

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At other companies where you are
no longer employed permanently

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you don't know whether
you can pay your rent,

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nor whether you'll get
food on the table.

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In my opinion Lieferando
should entirely go on strike.

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So that means 
everywhere in Germany Lieferando

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would have to go on strike, not
just Hamburg, Potsdam,

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to show
Lieferando:

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"We have a
cohesion,

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we are all colleagues and
we fight for our job!"

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I'm here
today,

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because we are having
this workers assembly,

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because we are all being fired
right now, as Potsdam curiers.

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We are already working
for the legal minimum.

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And if we lose this job, if we
are forced to work for Fleetlery,

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we will be forced to
work without contracts,

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without proper social
security contributions paid,

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and without taxes
properly paid.

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I don't want to be doing
illicit work for example.

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Migrants are continuously
blamed for that.

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I don't want to do that, why
would I want to do that?

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I would, of course, prefer my
health insurance properly paid.

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I would, of course, like to be
able to have my sick leave

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when I am
actually sick.

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And this is what I would
implore German public

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to understand,
that ...

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For Wolt and UberEats, it's already
the case for some of these companies,

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that these orders

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are actually being delivered by people
who cannot even take a sick leave.

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Their orders are being delivered
by people whose social contributions

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are not being paid properly
by these companies.

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This is already
being done.

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And Lieferando already
has started doing this.

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Some of 
Lieferando's people

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are working now in Berlin
without proper contracts

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and they are

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working under these conditions
where they don't have any job security

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and they cannot take
simply a sick note.

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And I don't know that
if they would prefer their...

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... if they would prefer

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their food being delivered
by sick people,

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I wouldn't want to work
when I am sick

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but I will be
forced to do that.

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The point is that
this model is actually

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such a backward,
criminal model.

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I can just say this much,
that I'm from Turkey,

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and the model that
Lieferando is switching to,

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the model that UberEats
and Wolt are already working with

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in several cities in
almost all of Germany,

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is actually
something

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that I would see in 1950s
Turkey, Istanbul in 1950s.

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I wouldn't see this happening
even in Turkey in 2025.

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And this is happening in Berlin,
in Germany, a country that is proud of

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adhering
to laws

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and legal
minimums.

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The entire image we
had about Germany

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is that this country sticks to laws
that if something is illegal, ...

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If I'm talking
with a German,

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if I explain some illegal practices
that is going on with Fleetlery,

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with Lieferando,
UberEats or Wolt,

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they would just
simply brush it off:

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"This is illegal though!", like, yes,
it is illegal, but they are doing it!

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And when I say that they are
doing it: "But it is illegal.

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They can't do this."
- But they are!

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When I say they are, they wouldn't
even believe it that it is happening.

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But yeah, those news
are out there now.

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There are examples of
investigative journalism

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and this is
actually happening,

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they are actually
committing these crimes

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and will commit them as long
as they are getting away with it.

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I am Martin Bechert,

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I am a specialist lawyer for labour
law and works council lawyer.

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What this is actually about is whether you
still have a legal employment relationship

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or whether you are actually
driven into illegality,

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because you can only work for
criminal subcontractors.

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If you want to do
a demonstration

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or go on strike, or if
you want to be louder:

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I will spend every day
between now and then

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working to make
sure it happens.

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We just need a few ideas
and some support.