As a student and aspiring journalist, a summer full of unpaid internships left me perilously poor come winter. In late 2015, Deliveroo had a heavy recruitment drive on campus looking for cycle couriers, and the job seemed to offer everything I needed: flexible hours I could fit around my degree; no prior experience requirement and most importantly, above-minimum-wage pay. Over the past nine months, these promises have faded one by one, and this week couriers heard that Deliveroo would be enforcing a new contract that would decimate our income.
A day working for Deliveroo doesn’t start at 9 and end at 5; you begin at 11.30am, work until 1.30pm, then start again at 5.30pm until 9.30pm. For many, it makes no sense to go home during the afternoon hiatus, so they continue to work off the clock, meaning they don’t receive the £7 hourly rate. If you see a Deliveroo courier between the hours of 2pm and 5pm, it could well be they’re working for as little as £3 or £4 an hour.
My zone, where I collect and deliver orders, is Marylebone, Mayfair and Soho. Other zones are huge – I have a friend in Putney who regularly cycles three or four miles to a restaurant, then just as many more miles to the customer. Under the new contract, he could earn as little as £3.75 an hour. This is made possible by our being technically “self employed”, which also means that in the event of an accident or injury, we’re completely alone and have no access to legal help or sick pay.
Deliveroo couriers are a diverse bunch – we’re full-time, part-time, students, graduates, uneducated and we’re from all over the world. Last week, couriers in my area refused to deliver orders from Byron after what that chain did to its employees. Today, we’re striking because it’s our turn to be exploited.
