Saturday, September 25, 2021
Criticism of working conditions
Gorillas boss: “We don’t exploit anyone”
One and a half years ago, the food supplier Gorillas started up in Berlin. After the initial euphoria about the lightning deliveries, criticism of the working conditions is growing. However, boss Seumer does not want his company to exploit employees.
The founder of the delivery service “Gorillas”, Kagan Sümer, defends himself against criticism of the working conditions of his company. “We are not exploiting anyone,” said Sümer of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. At Gorillas, the drivers are permanently employed, including social security. “This is how we consciously differentiate ourselves from the competition.”
The food supplier has been criticized for weeks and was at times on strike by its own drivers in Berlin. They ask for open-ended contracts, more money and less weight on their backs. In Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, according to “FAS”, drivers are switching from bikes to cargo bikes.
Born in Turkey, Sümer founded the online service that delivers groceries home within ten minutes in Berlin a year and a half ago. According to the report, it now employs thousands of people in nine countries.
With the rapid growth there are also “inconsistencies,” said Sümer of the newspaper. When it came to customer requests, Sümer had to learn something new. “We had expected that we would mainly appeal to the young urban population who order local beers and vegan chips,” he told the newspaper. “But most customers order fresh fruit and vegetables. And many older people also order from us.”
There are a number of delivery services in Germany, but many of the services are currently only available in larger cities. In particular, the very fast delivery services that bring purchases to the front door in ten minutes, work from a tight network of centrally located warehouses that only exist in the inner cities of large cities.