Just Eat to lay off 1,700 delivery drivers

Food delivery firm Just Eat Takeaway is reportedly planning to axe around 1,700 delivery drivers amid a slowdown in demand.

According to The Telegraph, bosses informed affected workers on Tuesday morning, with delivery drivers being offered six weeks’ notice with pay. It was understood that the shakeup will also affect 170 full time Just Eat staff within its operations team.

A spokesman for the company said: "Just Eat UK is reorganising and simplifying its delivery operation as part of the ongoing goal of improving efficiency. As part of this process we have proposed to transition away from the worker model for couriers, which is a small part of our overall delivery operations - running in certain parts of six UK cities. There will be no impact to the service provided to partners and customers.

"Our top priority now is to support impacted employees and couriers. We are hugely grateful to our talented colleagues and couriers who have been part of the worker model in the UK."

The company is understood to be replacing agency workers with freelance drivers who can access its on-demand app similar to Deliveroo. According to The Telegraph, agency workers only accounted for a small percentage of total UK delivery drivers.

Just Eat will still hire workers on hourly wages in other markets. Several European countries have pushed through law changes to give delivery couriers enhanced employment rights.

But executives at Just Eat are understood to believe hiring workers - which comes with additional costs such as holiday pay - in the UK meant it was facing steeper costs to deliver takeaways than its main rivals.

In its annual results earlier this month, Just Eat said that total global orders had fallen 9%, with orders in the UK and Ireland down 10%.