Deliveroo’s claims that the law prevents it from giving its workers basic rights is “utter hypocritical nonsense”, the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britian’s (IWGB) General Secretary Dr Jason Moyer-Lee says.
The union stated: Whilst it is true that unlike employees, workers do not have a right to sick pay, there is nothing preventing Deliveroo from offering this to its workers now. Deliveroo’s riders are at the very least workers and thus entitled to minimum wage and holiday pay. Deliveroo has gone to extreme efforts to deny its workers these rights, hiring an army of lawyers to resist the IWGB’s claims before the Central Arbitration Committee.
“In case after case the law has come down on the side of workers in the so-called “gig economy”. There is nothing to suggest, either logically or legally, that flexibility and employment rights are mutually exclusive” said IWGB General Secretary Dr Jason-Moyer Lee.
The IWGB brought the case before the Central Arbitration Committee to secure union recognition for the purpose of establishing a collective bargaining unit for riders working in the Camden Kentish Town area. The case would also determine whether the riders are self-employed workers or self-employed independent contractors as the company bogusly claims.
This week, a leaked document also revealed how organisations like Deliveroo avoid using the term ’employee’ in order to circumvent worker rights.
