Frichti: Couriers on strike ahead of decision on future of platform

Independent delivery drivers working for the delivery platform Frichti, in receivership, have started a strike, protesting against the abrupt end of their service contract.

"We have been on strike since September 19," Vazoumana Kedas Meite, a 24-year-old delivery driver, told AFP from Frichti's letter announcing to independent deliverers that the company, unable to present a continuation plan, "would probably be liquidated from September 27", when the Paris Commercial Court will rule on the future of the delivery platform.

"We are not warned in time, we have families to manage," said Kouadio Kouame, another delivery driver at the Levallois hub (Hauts-de-Seine). The latter ensures that they are 165 to block six sites (Levallois, Bagnolet and four in Paris).

Frichti "explains to us that the service contract ends on Monday, September 25," says Mr. Meite, who is seeking "compensation".

Two takeover offers were defended in court on September 11, one filed by a competitor, La Belle Vie, and another, joint, Flink SE and Guillaume Luscan, co-founder of Cajoo, had noted an AFP journalist.

More salaried than self-employed

"We are considered self-entrepreneurs, but not at all, we are like employees," denounces Vazoumana Kedas Meite. "We force you to do errands that you do not want to do, we take orders at 20 cents" and the account is suspended "if you take a two-week vacation," he says.

"Frichti gives us slots in the week," abounds an undocumented delivery man who preferred to withhold his identity and who says he is "panicked".

This message from Frichti constitutes "a disguised economic dismissal", judges lawyer Kevin Mention, who defends delivery drivers who have taken legal action to obtain a reclassification of their employment contract.

The delivery start-up was placed in receivership in March, at the same time as Getir and Gorillas, the three entities belonging to the Turkish delivery giant Getir, which had announced to throw in the towel in the face of the tightening of regulations. The Getir and Gorillas brands were liquidated in July.