“Knowing how to ride a bike without little wheels”
Deliveroo makes it clear in its contracts that it resorts to subcontracting due to a lack of in-house staff trained in technology and the proprietary knowledge needed for delivery. Investigators doubt this expertise, testimonies of delivery men say: “You just have to know how to ride a bicycle,” “without the little wheels,” and, ironically, one of them.
Delivery staff make strict schedules based on their performance and commitments. Put on a turquoise outfit, slip the restaurant’s backpack “on hand,” check the order, and remove the helmet in front of customers. The list sets out too long “while the person responsible for the extradition is supposed to be independent,” the investigators assert. Until the spring of 2017, the application did not allow a delivery person to refuse an order that was assigned to them. Then he had to ignore Deliveroo’s calls, risking being accused of “gross infraction”.
“They are the ones who run us as if they were our bosses.”
Another sign that Deliveroo is already the boss: his regular reprimands of people who give bad statistics. “Hopefully you’ll increase it, yours as well as ours” and a billing method very similar to payroll, according to investigators. “I never asked myself, they are the ones who run us and pay as if they were our bosses,” one of them said.
“Deliveroo works with independent deliverers. This gives them flexibility that they cannot take advantage of in the employee relationship,” the company pleads, noting that six out of seven French justice decisions were already favorable to it. “Small individual actions” that failed due to a lack of evidence, Kevin Minchin, an attorney for 70 delivery workers already wipes out as civil parties in the case.
Warning to all companies.
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