Not all heroes wear capes. This one wears a suit and glasses and is bald. No wonder — come September 2026 he turns 70. And I’d love to know how to stand my ground like that, at any age, the way he just did.
I have an important message for couriers working on civil-law contracts. Announcing that their contracts will be terminated soon will not stop our inspections, and wherever justified, we will issue orders to convert these contracts into proper employment — and if that doesn’t work, decisions mandating such conversion.
An old commie, PZPR-bred, and the best thing this coalition has done. A pro with years in the labour inspectorate behind him. Chief Labour Inspector Janusz Krasoń. He’s practically opening his time in the job with this declaration. He’s been head of the National Labour Inspectorate for barely 3 weeks. And he’s already got on the wrong side of some 250 billion dollars. Because that’s what the companies offering so-called platform work, like Just Eat Takeaway, are valued at.
And however important and needed these words are for the workers of Just Eat Takeaway’s Polish arm, Pyszne.pl — it’s deeds that count.
On 22 July, the National Labour Inspectorate launched an inspection at Pyszne.pl, which decided to sack 5,000 couriers and have them hired through fleet partners.
The corporation’s decision, contrary to fairly common belief, wasn’t triggered by the inspectorate’s new powers.
Last year Lieferando, the German arm, sacked 2,000 couriers; in April the layoffs hit the Netherlands.
These are attempts to shield themselves — practice will show how well — from the consequences of the platform work directive the workers fought for and won.
It covers more than delivery couriers, but they’re the most active trade group in the fight against this pathology.
One of the platforms’ basic strategies is shifting costs and risk onto the workers.
In delivery you have to buy the bag, pay to rent a bike from the very company you work for (sic!)…
If the platform directive gets implemented properly, practices like these will be eliminated, or at the very least seriously curbed.
That’s exactly why the Pyszne.pl case matters so much.
It’s the first big employment inspection since inspectors got the power to convert illegal civil-law contracts into Labour Code ones (employment contracts), and the first clash for the new European law recognising platform workers… as workers.
To put it a bit more precisely: the law recognises that with platforms an employment relationship exists, and so an employment contract should be signed.
And all the labour-rights regulations matter — the ones that don’t protect people on civil-law contracts.
It’s not just the right to holiday, but the rules on working in high heat, on days off, or at night.
And yes, of course, if someone thinks they’ll have to pay more for a delivered pizza (or kebab). They will. And very good.
Because there’s always a chance they won’t order at all — they’ll take a walk instead or cook for themselves (if they can manage), and either way that’s better for their fitness and health. And if plenty of people do that, then thanks to the effect of scale it’s a win for public health and takes a bit of weight off the health service.
And of course the delivery business could take a big hit. And very good. If a company can’t offer decent working conditions and decent pay, better it goes under.
But customers won’t stop eating. This isn’t buying new gear, a phone or a car. Where maybe I’ll wait for a sale. Or won’t buy at all, too pricey.
We have to eat every day. And customers who don’t buy food through a platform will buy it elsewhere.
And it’s not the case either, whatever some loudmouths say, that people doing courier work dreamed of this career path and have plenty of better options.
Well, they don’t. That’s why they work in delivery. Or stack supermarket shelves, or sit at the till.
Poland is a country where these Morlocks were, after ’89, stripped of their rights with premeditation — the cornerstone being the anti-union law of May ’91, in which the new elites cut back trade union rights, starting with the unions’ most important weapon: the strike. A grim paradox of Polish history, that the people who came to power thanks to striking workers stripped those workers of their rights.
And it’s probably just a coincidence, mere timing, but I’d like to think it’s something more — that the new Chief Labour Inspector began his reign not long after the new mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, called a socialist by just about everyone, whether with hatred or delight, backed the Starbucks union workers right after his win.
We will leave no one without our support. I hope this gives food for thought to businesses planning moves that hurt their employees. The rules apply to everyone equally and we will make no exceptions in applying them.
Janusz Krasoń
The kitchen is my space for lifestyle medicine.
I'm not a dietitian or a doctor – I'm a chef, and a member of the Polish Society of Lifestyle Medicine. Nutrition is essential to a modern kitchen, and that's nothing new: working from Hippocratic dietetic principles was part of a cook's craft centuries ago. At Rude Kitchen I tie that tradition to modern science — and to lifestyle. Read more about how I bring cooking and lifestyle medicine together on the About page.