Clash of ideals as Deliveroo, MP propose fixes for 'gig economy'

Restaurant delivery service Deliveroo - whose robin’s egg blue-adorned delivery bikes are ubiquitous in London and other major centres - called for an overhaul of employment laws this week, asking the Government to let it give its delivery contractors the rights they would enjoy as full employees, without actually signing them up as full employees.

The wildly successful startup, headquartered in a swankily-fitted out office just off Tottenham Court Road - wanted its contracted drivers to enjoy the same benefits as guaranteed to full-time employees, such as sick pay and maternity leave - while still offering the flexibility of contract positions.

At present, if Deliveroo wanted to offer these benefits, it would need to class them as workers and pay them an hourly rate for set shifts.

Drivers for the company currently ‘sign on’ to work when they like, and accept orders through an app, to be paid a piece rate for deliveries with no guarantee of minimum wage or any national insurance contributions from their employer.

“We want to combine full flexibility with real security ­ and we are calling for the law to be updated so we are able to offer both,” Deliveroo founder Will Shu wrote in Thursday’s Daily Telegraph.

“We strongly believe this is not a zero-­sum game.”

The company submitted to the official review into employment rights, currently being led by Matthew Taylor, the former policy chief to Tony Blair.

But at the same time, a report from former work and pensions committee chair Frank Field MP, called for an “emergency intervention” into workers of the so-called ‘gig economy’, claiming some workers were earning less than £2.50 per hour in jobs that could disappear without much more than the stroke of a key.

Field, the Labour MP for Birkenhead, was focussing primarily on delivery companies, including DPD and Parcelforce, as well as owner of the ‘We Buy Any Car’ brand British Car Auctions.

Staff interviewed for the report claimed they had earned £2.22 per hour under the banner of ‘self-employed’, while others were reportedly penalised “hundreds” of pounds if they refused to work while sick.

Field also claimed Parcelforce - the express delivery division of Royal Mail - required its drivers to formally agree not to challenge their employment status, leaving them with few options.

He wanted the law to be reversed, forcing companies to prove their workers are rightly self-employed, rather than the current system requiring workers to challenge their status.

“We believe such moves are necessary to bring to an end the current free-for-all whereby an unknown number of workers on low incomes are, in effect, subsidising the companies with whom they work,” the report read.