Just Eat plans to cut hundreds of Swiss courier jobs

Several hundred couriers are expected to lose their jobs as Just Eat reshapes its Swiss delivery operation. The company employs roughly 700 couriers in Switzerland, and it plans to announce the exact number of redundancies in November. The cuts will affect its delivery workforce as Just Eat moves away from permanent employment and towards independent contractors and fleet partners.

Lukas Streich, head of the company’s Swiss division, described the change as a shift in its operating model. The plans put different working arrangements in place across the country, with the approach depending on the region. Couriers in French-speaking Switzerland will remain employees following a court ruling, while other parts of the country will use self-employed couriers or an outside fleet partner. The announcement brings employment status and worker protection into focus for Switzerland’s food-delivery sector, where Just Eat says it needs greater flexibility in how it schedules deliveries.

Just Eat says fixed shifts limit its ability to cover changing demand, including late-night orders. Streich pointed to customers ordering at different times of day, from a hamburger at 2 am to cake and a matcha latte in the afternoon. He said employee schedules set two weeks in advance cannot accommodate that pattern.

Streich also cited Swiss labour law, which he said prohibits employees from making deliveries after midnight. The company’s move to contractors and fleet partners is intended to give it more flexibility, including for night shifts. That rationale sits at the centre of the planned job cuts: Just Eat is changing how it staffs deliveries as it seeks to cover a wider range of ordering hours. The shift will replace permanent employee roles in several regions with other arrangements, while the company’s French-speaking operation retains employee couriers following a court ruling.

Just Eat will use different delivery arrangements across Switzerland. In Ticino, the partner company On Duty will handle operations. In Zurich, Bern, Basel, Winterthur and Eastern Switzerland, deliveries will be carried out primarily by self-employed individuals. Couriers in French-speaking Switzerland will remain employees following a court ruling.

The regional split means the company’s workforce changes will not follow one uniform model. Just Eat is relying on a fleet partner in Ticino and mostly independent couriers across several other regions, while maintaining employee status in the French-speaking part of the country. Streich’s stated aim is greater flexibility in scheduling, particularly for night shifts. The arrangements also make the legal and employment status of delivery workers a prominent issue in the rollout, with the court ruling shaping how Just Eat operates in French-speaking Switzerland.