Since last week, around 2,500 employees of Pizza Fan — delivery riders, bakers, cooks and staff at more than 100 outlets across the country — have found themselves overnight without work or any information, the GSEE says in a statement.
The reason is that those who ran the business are accused of hiding millions of euros from the state for years. Let us be clear: no public authority ordered the outlets to close. The authorities seized the company’s call centre and software because, according to the accusation, they were the very tools of the fraud. What happened, then, was neither an act of God nor a “technical problem”. It was the consequence of the employer’s choices, and the cost cannot be passed on to those who worked 12-hour shifts so that others could make these profits.
The employment contracts remain in force, and the law is absolutely clear. Under the Civil Code, when an employee is available to work but the employer does not provide work, the employer owes the full wage. The employer is released from this obligation only in cases of force majeure — that is, an unforeseeable event beyond the employer’s control that could not have been prevented by any means. The courts have consistently held that anything arising from a company’s own business activity and choices is the company’s responsibility. And nothing is less “unforeseeable” to an employer than the consequences of its own actions. Anyone preparing to invoke “force majeure” to avoid paying should know that we will oppose them.
The GSEE demands the immediate payment in full of wages, all accrued pay and social security contributions for every employee by their employer, whether that is the central company or an individual outlet in the network. It also demands that all jobs be preserved and that no one be made redundant, while no employee should be pressured to resign and thereby lose their rights. We call on the employer not even to consider using the situation it created to get rid of staff or evade its obligations. We call on the government to ensure that, in any seizure or freezing of assets, employees’ wages and social security contributions are paid first, and to give workers practical support. The GSEE stands with Pizza Fan employees and their unions and will use every means, both trade union and legal, to ensure that not a single euro of what they are owed is lost.