Frank Field MP and Andrew Forsey have published their report into the living standards of individuals working for food delivery firm Deliveroo.
The report, Delivering justice? A report on the pay and working conditions of Deliveroo riders, outlines several recommendations to ensure that Deliveroo’s model of working is suitable for all of its workers. It highlights that although the flexibility it provides works well for some, for others it works poorly.
Commenting on the report, Field said: “The self-employed status and part-time nature of much gig economy work has given the labour market a flexibility that is still relatively new. Some of those workers who are keen to seize this opportunity view it as a short-term option while they develop their longer term earning power – setting up their own business, starting on an artistic career and the like.”
Deliveroo riders are paid per delivery. However, the report, which received evidence from 179 Deliveroo riders, found that some were earning as little as £2 or £3 pound an hour, while at the other end of the scale earnings could sometimes reach £20 an hour.
A Deliveroo spokesperson told Employee Benefits that it was proud to “offer flexible well-paid work where riders on average earn well over £10 an hour”.
“Deliveroo believes more can be done to increase the security for riders while protecting their ability to be their own bosses, which is why we have introduced free, market-leading insurance for all, covering riders in case anything goes wrong.
“But we want to go further, and have called on the government to update employment rules to end the trade-off between flexibility and security and enable platforms to offer riders even more benefits without putting their employment status at risk.”
To tackle this issue the report recommends that Deliveroo consider offering a form of worker status to riders to provide greater stability and certainty. It also encouraged the organisation to guarantee hourly pay rates of no less than the National Living Wage for the time that people are logged on and available for work.
More broadly, the report suggested that the government investigate the pay levels of other people working through platforms, as well as reform employment law so that companies can prove beyond a doubt that workers are self-employed.
“But for an unknown number of workers these imposed self-employment opportunities are all, there is on offer, even though their need is for stable work for at least the level of the National Living Wage. It is this group that we are concerned about in this report and have been in each previous report we have published on the gig economy,” he said.
“The reform programme we outline will, I hope, be picked up by Deliveroo and the government as a means of both protecting this group while preserving the flexibility that so many riders have said they value.”
