Filenews 14 May 2022 - by Eleftheria Paizanos
About 8,500 persons work as distributors of food and products in catering businesses and digital platforms, of which 7,000 are employees and the rest are self-employed.
The majority of them are Cypriots, while in recent months there has been a large increase in the employment of political refugees as distributors. Last February alone, the Department of Labour granted around 500 permits for the employment of political refugees as deliverers for digital platforms.
According to data from the Ministry of Labour, last March in the computer system of the social security services there were registered 5,932 salaried distributors, whose employers fall under the economic activity of "other postal and courier activities". Of the total number of employed distributors in the postal activities category, 3,800 are Cypriots, 1,032 are for postal deliveries, 1,099 are foreigners from third countries and one is a Turkish Cypriots.
In the last six years, the number of delivery riders has increased twelvefold, from 464 in 2015 last year to almost 6,000. At the same time, the data show that the number of foreigners (third countries) delivery riders increased by 140 times, i.e. in 2015 there were only six persons working as distributors and last year their number reached 804. At the same time in 2015 the number of postal distributors was 107 and last year it increased to 234.
And others as self-employed
In addition to the above employees, 1,412 employee distributors were registered in the social insurance services system, whose employers fall under the economic activity "portals". At the same time, in the system of social insurance services, there were registered 1,006 self-employed persons with a code of occupation "ushers, distributors and porters of luggage and packages, porters of luggage in hotels, etc.". According to the data of the Ministry of Labour, at the end of February 2022, 478 permits were granted by the Department of Labour, which are in force, for the employment of foreigners in the profession of food distributor, of which 465 are for asylum seekers, while the remaining 13 are for foreign students. The data was included in a reply letter from the Minister of Labour Zeta Emilianidou to AKEL MP Giorgos Koukoumas, who asked to be informed about the number of distributors for digital platforms in the catering businesses as well, while also asking for data on undeclared work.
As the Minister mentions, in the last three years the Inspection Service of the Ministry of Labour, in the context of the effort to combat undeclared work, has carried out targeted inspections nationwide, to employers operating in catering businesses and digital platforms and employing staff as food distributors.
Specifically, from 2019 to 2021, 25 inspections were carried out on 69 employees of which 20 had not been declared to the ministry. However, the relevant department proceeded with only four complaints about violation of the Social Security Act.
At the same time, inspections were carried out on safety and health issues at work. Specifically, in 2019, 99 inspections were carried out in hotels, 123 in restaurants and 35 in premises for the distribution of ready-made food, where it was found that 54% of the premises for the distribution of ready-made food that were inspected, were included in the written assessment of the risks, the risk from the use of a motorcycle, while measures were being taken to reduce the risk to about 80% of the premises. In conclusion, the minister notes that the offenders were given recommendations, letters were sent and improvement notices were issued for compliance.
