Editorial: Newfangled employers

New technologies found fertile ground in the absolutely adverse public health conditions of the pandemic.

Social distancing measures created new needs, allowing a rapid, international development of new, exceptionally popular services, especially in the broad sector of the courier industry.

When citizens remained at home during public health lockdowns they sought ways to cover a host of consumer needs.

Commercial enterprises in turn, from big chains to smaller shops, hastened to meet market needs, offering consumers the ability to make purchases from their homes and undertaking the cost of delivery.

The pairing of new technologies with traditional foot work jobs were undertaken by newly established enterprises that had the technological means to create contemporary electronic platforms that facilitated purchases, but without a sense of social responsibility regarding the low-skilled work of transport in absolutely dangerous urban traffic conditions.

They exploited to the max high youth unemployment levels and they swiftly set up a courier mechanism, without offering the means for workers do their job or security, with the lowest possible cost.

Within months in Greece, businesses recruited an army of thousands of "delivery boys" that frantically  sped with small motorcyles on the streets to deliver everything from coffees and food to clothing, shoes, appliances, and everything else, rain or shine and during heat waves

Yet, the wages offered by employers was extremely low and they justified that by claiming that workers' income was supplemented by their paltry tips. There was an unprecedented demand for high-speed with as many deliveries as possible.

Employers exhibited horrible behaviour in the name of flexibility and...