Employees of Turkish online shopping giant Hepsiburada’s courier arm, HepsiJET, took to social media late Thursday to express outrage after the company only offered them a TL 1 ($0.07) raise per parcel distributed.
“We are HepsiJET workers, we distribute cargo to your door every day. Do you know how we do this? By running,” the employees said on their community’s Twitter account.
“Our pay per parcel is TL 3.75 ($0.27), and they offered us TL 4.50 ($0.33) for this year,” the frustrated employees, who gathered under #kuryeyezam and #hakkımızıverhepsijet (“raise to couriers” and “Give us our right HepsiJET” in Turkish) hashtags, said in a tweet, as many underlined that the raise does not exceed TL 1 per parcel.
HepsiJET employees also implied that they were subjected to mobbing, saying that the company management questions employees for solely liking a post on Facebook.
“The money we make is under the minimum wage,” the employees also said, adding that they work on an on-demand status and don’t receive a regular salary.
Workers also demanded that their colleagues fired by the company for fighting for their rights be hired back.
“We deserve a guarantee of TL 12,500 ($916) plus value-added tax,” they said, adding that this figure will cover all of their expenses to transport cargo.
Recently, employees of another online shopping giant, the couriers of the Trendyol Express of the Alibaba-owned Trendyol, succeeded in their fight to get a 38.8% raise instead of the meager 11% the company initially offered.
