Out of approximately 700 couriers working for Just Eat delivery service in Switzerland, several hundred are expected to lose their jobs; with the exact number of redundancies to be announced in November.
The reason behind the cuts, according to Lukas Streich, head of the multinational’s Swiss division, is that the company is “shifting its model in Switzerland.”
Concretely, it is switching from permanent employees to independent contractors and fleet partners.
In particular, Streich cited the need for more flexible scheduling – such as for night shifts – as the primary reason for the layoffs.
“People might want to order a hamburger at 2 am or a slice of cake and a matcha latte in the afternoon,” he told Swiss media.
However, this has proven “to be not feasible when shift schedules are set two weeks in advance. Furthermore, Swiss labour law prohibits employees from making deliveries after midnight.”
Regional differences
The new model is not, however, introduced uniformly across all regions.
In Ticino, Just Eat’s partner “On Duty” will handle operations, while in Zurich, Bern, Basel, Winterthur, and Eastern Switzerland, the deliveries will be carried out primarily by self-employed individuals.
In French-speaking Switzerland, couriers will remain employees, following a court ruling.
‘Illegal practices’
Not surprisingly, the trade union Unia, which represents delivery personnel, not only criticised the impending job cuts, but also the growing trend within the industry of switching workers from employee to self-employed, and the lack of protection such a shift entails.
“In doing so, the food delivery and courier service is copying the model used by Uber Eats, which has triggered fierce, unfair competition in the sector through the use of illegal practices,” the union said.
In Switzerland, some Uber Eats couriers are independent contractors, though the legal status can vary depending on the canton and how the platform or third-party fleet partners structure the work,
READ MORE: The companies in Switzerland that are cutting jobs in 2026 and 2027
