Deliveroo riders protest contract changes

Hundreds of Deliveroo riders staged a protest outside the delivery firm’s head office in central London yesterday in response to plans to alter the basis on which they are paid. Deliveroo currently pays £7 an hour plus £1 per delivery but wants to pay £3.75 per delivery instead.

One rider, Amir Ali, told the Guardian: “£7 an hour was okay and if you worked hard, it was good. But now they are cutting it below the basic wage. We work in snow, we work in rain. They don’t give you a place to sit down.”

A recent press release stated that the average Deliveroo delivery time is 32 minutes.

A number of riders have gone on strike and some rode through London in convoy to draw attention to their situation.

Another rider said that the plans to pay per delivery would leave riders vulnerable to fluctuating demand. “Sometimes you might be hanging round for an hour for a delivery. August is a really quiet month – in winter-time when people get lazy you do better. It varies. We need something a bit more consistent, something more reliable. We have kids, we have rent. We can’t deal with uncertainty.”

Deliveroo said: “What we have seen from previous trials that we have been running in other parts of London is that riders have reacted positively to the trial, and fees rise to more than twice what they were over a lunch or dinner, compared to the old payment model.”

Riders said they had been asked to sign additional clauses to their contracts agreeing to the changes. Michael Newman, an employment lawyer at Leigh Day, said: “This isn’t like trialling a new shampoo – if the new deal isn’t better for people they can’t just go back to the old one. Once you’ve signed a contract the new terms apply.”