‘Roomen’ and ‘Roowomen’ deliver request for collective bargaining

It flatters them as “superstar cyclists” in its recruitment pitch, but there are no superstar wages for Deliveroo’s food delivery force. The company, which operates in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick, pays “fees” to its “Roomen” and “Roowomen”.

They are treated as self-employed contractors rather than part-time or temporary workers, which would confer rights. These rights include the right to the statutory minimum wage (€9.25 from January 2017) and the right to collective bargaining through a union.

Over the summer, Deliveroo moved away from its pay structure of €9 per hour and €1 paid per delivery, to a pilot scheme where it paid a fee of €4.25 per delivery (€4.75 on weekends) with no hourly rate. It sparked the launch of an Ireland-based "Boycott Deliveroo" Facebook page, while a similar move in the UK inspired protests outside its London offices.

People Before Profit Alliance TD Bríd Smith says a number of Deliveroo couriers had met with TDs to discuss the conditions of their work. "It is pretty sh*t the way they are treated, and it seems to be getting worse," Smith says.

Deliveroo says it offers flexible work and a fair payment model. But buoyed by the Uber drivers' case, where a judge found Uber drivers are not self-employed and should be paid the national living wage, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) has sent a letter to Deliveroo chief executive Will Shu asking for recognition for the union to bargain on behalf of its delivery force in North London.

If Deliveroo does not respond, it plans to submit an application to the UK’s Central Arbitration Committee asking it to declare that Deliveroo must engage with collective bargaining. Before it can do that, this body would first have to determine whether Deliveroo’s delivery force are employees and not independent contractors.

For a generation of workers, the phrase “be your own boss”, starts to sound less like kindly advice, and more like an order.