When a bedraggled, soaked through Conservative Prime Minister announced a UK General Election in the rain on Wednesday [22 May], with Labour's theme tune playing in the background and mustering all the enthusiasm of a limpet, you didn't need a political science degree to identify this pathetic scene as an appropriate symbol of the end of a disgraceful era in British politics. The Tories have been in power for 14 long years, in which time they have over-seen a monumental rise in poverty across the British isles, with homelessness surging way beyond the western average. It was at the start of this era of austerity and generalised penury that the British variety of the gig economy emerged, estimated by the Trades Union Congress to involve 14.7% of the working age population by 2021, significantly larger than the European average.It will be of little surprise to readers that under the Conservatives, there has been no progress on platform workers' rights. The Taylor Review in 2017 was supposed to tackle the precariousness which proliferates in the gig economy, but it flattered to deceive. Indeed, the Data Protection & Digital Information Bill would have taken gig workers' rights backwards, weakening their ability to access their personal data and protections against 'robo-firing', but thankfully it doesn't look likely that the Tories will have time to push the law through before they are almost-certainly kicked-out on 4 July.Unfortunately, it's not at all clear that the party destined to take power, Labour, is going to deliver the workers' rights the gig economy desperately needs. Labour backed a single-worker status in 2021, before reports emerged last summer that the new policy was under review because party leader Keir Starmer was seeking to "woo corporate leaders and discredit Tory claims that his party is 'anti-business'". Earlier this month it was confirmed that the commitment was gone along with various other parts of Labour's 'New Deal' for workers, with the party now stating that it will "consult in detail" on "moving towards" a single-worker status. The UK is one of many European countries which has a third status between employee and self-employed, which is called 'limb (b)'. This is the status which Uber drivers in the UK are currently employed under, and entitles them to some workers' rights - the minimum wage and holiday pay - but not others, like protection from unfair dismissal and sick pay. Speak to UK Uber drivers and they will tell you that since they started to be employed on limb (b) in 2021, there pay has fallen significantly. Limb (b) has not protected them from the vicissitudes of Uber's dynamic pricing policy, rolled-out in the UK last year. Indeed, this was the cause of a strike by Uber drivers in London this week (see news round-up section below for more). Usually centre-left party's capitulate to corporate interests once they get into power, not before doing so, but Starmer's Labour is setting a new pace for shifting rightwards. The influence of the platform lobby on Labour has become increasingly noticeable, with one Labour MP stating: “The evidence of the growing engagement with and influence of companies such as Deliveroo is deeply concerning to many in the party and the movement.”Both Uber and Deliveroo have signed 'partnership' agreements with GMB union in recent years, with part of the reasoning for both platforms surely being to burnish their credentials with Labour, in which GMB is a key funder. Both companies have recently changed their rules to directly make political donations in the UK, with Deliveroo's change of policy pushed through at the company's AGM on Wednesday [22 May], backed by over 99% of shareholders. Deliveroo's riders regularly do not earn the minimum wage, but the British food delivery platform has enough spare cash to buy political influence: presumably to ensure its poverty pay rates are not going to come under regulatory threat any time soon.Indeed, Deliveroo has another layer of protection from the UK Supreme Court, after it found in September last year that their riders do not have collective bargaining rights because they aren't actually workers for the company. The verdict puts the UK at odds with the vast majority of European courts on the employment status of food delivery couriers, and with the passing of the EU Platform Work Directive, the distance between the UK and the EU on the totemic question of bogus self-employment in the gig economy has become a chasm in legal and legislative terms (although not yet in practise).The major grassroots rebellion by food delivery couriers in the UK in February was a timely reminder that the self-activity of gig workers will be critical to any significant change in the gig economy in the UK. It's unlikely to be a coincidence that, since those strikes, Deliveroo has announced a minimum pay floor of £12 an hour. Gig workers are unlikely to find a Labour government bearing gifts, but they might find it easier to embarrass Starmer - a very unpopular prime minister-in-waiting - into action than his Tory predecessors. Ben Wray, Gig Economy Project co-ordinator
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Gig Economy news round-up |
- UBER EATS AND DELIVEROO SAY THEY WON'T COMPLY WITH NEW BELGIAN DELIVERY LAW: Uber Eats and Deliveroo, the two largest food delivery platforms in Belgium, have said that a new law intended to establish a minimum remuneration for all delivery workers does not apply to them, despite the fact the Belgian Government have said it does. The new 'parcel law', which will enter into force on 1 July, establishes a minimum pay per hour and a ceiling on the number of hours delivery workers can work each week. It is intended to include all 'last-mile' delivery workers - those delivering items which weigh less than 31.5 kilos - to improve their working conditions regardless of their employment status. There are two exceptions, for companies which deliver in-house (e.g. a pizza restaurant) and workers who operate under the controversial P2P status, which limits earnings per annum to just €7,170 and includes some food delivery couriers in Belgium. However, the Belgian Government has written in its FAQs for the new law that it "applies well to subcontractors such as Uber Eats or Deliveroo, because they deliver on behalf of third parties". However both Uber Eats and Deliveroo told newspaper 'Le Soir' that they are not postal companies and therefore the law does not apply to them. The conflict over the new law comes after the social security department's labour relations committee found at the start of the month that three Uber Eats riders were employees under the Belgian platform work law introduced on 1 January 2023. Uber Eats and Deliveroo had both denied that the platform work law applied to them, and Uber Eats said it would appeal the finding of the labour relations committee. Read more here.
- DELIVEROO CHALLENGED BY RIDERS INSIDE AND OUTSIDE AGM: British food delivery platform Deliveroo held its annual general meeting (AGM) on Thursday [23 May] amid protests against its treatment of its riders inside and outside the event in London. Images of the protest showed a large motorcade of riders with flares and a placard reading "£300 million for shareholders - £2.90 for riders". The Daily Mirror reported that "members of the Brazilian, Bengali, Romanian and British rider communities" were present at the IWGB union organised demonstration. A Deliveroo rider for over half a decade, Mr Toun, told the Mirror at the protest: "We have seen a steady real-term decrease (in pay) year on year. Our labour is being bid on every day to the lowest paying rider to take that order. But you have no choice. It's soul-destroying." The GMB union announced last week that they had negotiated a new minimum pay floor with Deliveroo of £12 per hour, which they described as "a 15.2% increase on last year's pay floor." Shaf Hussain, IWGB courier and logistics branch chair, responded to the new pay floor by tweeting: "They think we're happy with their new £12 pay floor, we can't even make £10." Inside the AGM, the campaign group ShareAction co-ordinated with the IWGB for riders to be able to enter and ask questions of CEO Will Shu.
- JUST EAT RIDERS IN PARIS CALL ON EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT CANDIDATES TO SIGN PLATFORM WORKER CHARTER: Food delivery couriers at Just Eat who face the prospect of being made redundant are calling on French candidates for the European Parliament election to sign a charter committing them to defend "salaried employment, the fight against outsourcing and the protection of undocumented workers" in the platform economy. Just Eat announced in January that it was ending its in-house 'Scoober' service in Paris, with around 100 riders set to be made redundant. Since then, the riders and their union, Force Ouvrière (FO), have launched a major international campaign to defend their jobs, accusing Just Eat CEO Jitse Groen of hypocrisy, after Groen backed employment status in the EU Platform Work Directive while ending employment of riders completely in France and the UK. Groen says his company cannot compete with rivals hiring workers on a self-employed basis, which reduces labour costs. The riders still hope to convince the company to U-turn on the redundancies, and Just Eat has told GEP that they are negotiating with FO "in good faith". The Charter has nine commitments and includes the statement: "It's obvious that the situation of Just Eat employees is linked to unfair competition due to Uberisation; they are the collateral victims of this system. Their struggle is therefore necessary not just for their individual situations, but to defend the legitimate interests of workers. That's why I'm committed to defending their action in concrete terms, in particular by taking their fight wherever it's necessary." Leïla Chaibi, France Insoumise MEP and platform workers' rights campaigner who is standing for re-election, responded by saying she backed the Charter. "Over the last 5 years, it was together that we led the victorious fight of the directive for the rights of platform workers," she tweeted. "And it is together that we will prove the Just Eat leadership wrong." Read more here.
- ADCU UNION STRIKE AND PROTEST AT UBER'S LONDON HQ OVER PAY: The App Drivers & Couriers Union (ADCU) held a 24-hour strike and protest outside Uber's London headquarters on Wednesday [22 May] due to "decreasing earnings despite rising living costs post-pandemic". A 'Wired' video showed a group of drivers protesting outside the offices and calling on the company to "end injustice". Placards read "smart pricing - smart cheating", "stop dynamic pricing" and "end unfair dismissals". Wired journalist Morgan Meaker reported that she tried to get an Uber to the protest but the app said none were available. Zamir Dreni, ADCU London's vice chair, stated in a press release in advance of the protest: "Uber drivers have never been worse off than they are right now. Uber fares have increased but drivers' take has decreased since the pandemic while the cost of living has increased significantly—from rent to the food on your table. Vehicle operating costs have also risen for many drivers, insurance has doubled, and fuel prices have surged. Make no mistake. Uber is making huge profits at the expense of its drivers. Today, Uber fares are no longer cheap for passengers, but drivers see little of this increased fare, receiving less than 55% of it. Uber takes more than 45% of the original fare."
- GLOVO REFUSE TO PAY COSTS TO REPATRIATE THE BODY OF RIDER WHO DIED AT WORK: Spanish food delivery platform Glovo has not even put out a statement to acknowledge the death of a food delivery courier in Madrid who died while working for the platform. Neither has Glovo been willing to pay the costs of repatriating Venezuelan Mario Clemente's body, which was covered by Venezuelans and fellow riders, according to Clemente's sister, Samary, who he lived with in Madrid. Clemente was hit by a taxi and died from his injuries on 20 April. The fatality sparked protests from hundreds of Glovo riders, who want safer cycling spaces in the Spanish capital. Clemente, who arrived in Madrid in August 2023, is the sixth cyclist to die on the streets of Madrid since 2019. Many riders in Madrid and other large urban centres in Europe work undocumented, meaning they use the account of someone else who charges a rent for usage up to 50% of wages earned, a practice known as 'sub-letting'. Glovo provides accident insurance for self-employed riders (the company refuses to employ its riders despite the passing of the Rider Law), but for those who are undocumented there is no such support in case of injury or death. Read more here.
Have we missed something important? You can help keep us informed by sending information to GEP@BraveNewEurope.com. |
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Post-Mortem for Ampled
Trebor Scholz and Morshed Mannan write on the Platform Cooperativism Consortium site about the demise of New York cooperative platform Ampled, and the debate it has sparked about platform co-ops more broadly.
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- From 22-30 May, the elections for worker representatives to the French 'social dialogue' system in the platform economy, called The Social Relations Authority for Employment Platforms (ARPE), will take place. - The University of Edinburgh and the Workers' Observatory is hosting an event titled 'Cracking the Black Box within the Platform Economy'. The event will take place on Wednesday 5 June 5.30-8pm GMT at The Melting Pot, 15 Calton Road, Edinburgh. For full details and to buy a ticket, click here.
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The Gig Economy Project is a media network for gig workers and we welcome contributions from workers, writers, academics, activists - anyone who wants to stand up for workers' rights in the gig economy.
If you would like to write for the site, discuss arranging an interview with GEP, or simply have information about developments in the gig economy in Europe you think we should be aware of, get in touch.
Contact project co-ordinator Ben Wray at GEP@BraveNewEurope.com or send a direct message to the Twitter: @project_gig.
And if you like the Gig Economy Project weekly newsletter, why not get your friends and colleagues to subscribe? Here's the link.
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