According to food delivery company Wolt, anyone can be a Wolt courier and they keep no record of who comes from where. Since they contract with the couriers as partners, according to the company, they do not have guest workers either, reports Világgazdaság.
The paper originally asked the company whether they employ guest workers, and if so, how many people and what proportion of their employees they make up. In its response, Wolt wrote that they do not employ guest workers. “Our courier partners are not Wolt employees, but delivery partners with a service contract, for whom three contract forms are available upon joining,” they wrote.
They also inquired about why there are so many foreign Wolt couriers. According to the company, “courier companies are often associated with foreigners, as it is easier to spot them on the street or meet them when they deliver our orders.” They added: it could also be that the cost of entry is low, the work can be started with a bicycle, and knowledge of the language is not necessary. The company currently has more than 8,000 monthly active courier partners in its network.
“We do not ask for information about nationality when applying, as it is not relevant to the performance of tasks”
they wrote. This is also explained by the fact that their mentality does not allow any negative or positive discrimination. Based on the feedback, their experiences with foreign employees are positive. “We also constantly monitor our customers’ feedback, and if we receive a large number of complaints against someone (regardless of nationality), we will take the appropriate steps.”
Food couriers make up the most visible part of the foreigners working in Hungary, because we also meet them as everyday consumers – we wrote earlier about the increasing number of workers coming from distant countries in Hungary in all sectors. Since students and guest workers from more distant countries usually do not know Hungarian, they can only work in positions where the lack of language skills is not a problem, or where the language of work is basically English: multis international teams and IT, simpler trained and support jobs, transport, kitchen work. A significant part of the couriers are students, most of them are studying in Hungary with the Stipendium Hungaricum.
