Deliveroo, founded in 2013, is here to stay and you only need to spend a minute in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester to see how popular the work is with young men. So, given the lack of stability and employee protection, why do it? The drawbacks for gig economy work are also some of the benefits: there is no fixed income but no fixed hours, workers can choose when they log in and out; but because they are self-employed contractors, not employees of Deliveroo, they are not entitled to basic minimum wage or sick pay and all the other protections afforded to workers under employment law.
But if the motivation to work longer hours is high, then so too is the pay. The more orders taken, the more money made, so speed is of the essence. Relatively affordable e-bikes are the preferred form of transport. Orders are offered via the app to riders based on their estimated travel time. Given this, modified e-bikes have risen in popularity and can reach speeds above the permitted 15mph and are technically motorised vehicles, uninsured, and not always following the rules of the road. This development has led to an increase in police cracking down on the behaviour of those using e-bikes across the UK. One day I asked a Deliveroo rider who was waiting for orders outside a Sainsbury’s in Withington if his bike was modified and how fast he could go; his bike wasn’t modified but he said that three months earlier, he had his bike taken off him by police for running a red light.
Picking up as many orders as possible is an understandable aim, but other road users may not sympathise. With the confiscation of e-bikes, delivery riders lose a valuable source of income. In different times, employers could enforce a code of conduct, provide training and maybe even equipment. But, instead, riders have to pay for their own equipment (including their bag and jacket) and are hired and fired with impunity, no induction and no protection. As a last resort, union membership could support workers in disputes but little attention is paid to the welfare of workers in the gig economy. That is the downside to the autonomy of food delivery work: when support is needed there isn’t any in place.
However, mirroring the informal nature of the work, food delivery riders can arrange industrial action quickly and easily without a ballot from a union or the knowledge of their employers. This was most notably demonstrated in Oldham in 2022 when a delivery rider (not for Deliveroo) had an altercation with a McDonald’s employee. Tensions were high between these overworked and low-paid workers and the delivery rider messaged his co-workers via his phone and within minutes, no orders from the McDonald’s in question were being picked up. It was effectively a wildcat strike that allowed riders to boycott a specific eatery without missing out on valuable orders and income from other establishments. They were striking whether they formally recognised it or not .
So, what role can unions play in protecting the rights of gig economy workers? To learn more I went to the Working Class Movement Library where the Chief Exec of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) Alex Marshall was discussing the rights of food delivery riders alongside Brazilian Deliveroo rider Celestino Santos Perriera who had taken part in strikes against Deliveroo in 2024 and Morgan Powell who is researching the role unions can play for platform workers for the Leeds Index at the University of Leeds. You can listen to the conversation in the link below:
Alex Marshall is a former bike courier. He worked long, hard hours on London streets in 2009 when radios rather than phones were the means of communication. Marshall brandished a well-used A-Z to prove his old-school credentials and initially sang the praises of a profession that he is no longer part of. Although couriering is low-paid, hard work, he found couriering fun, he made friends for life and the perk of setting his own hours was suitable for his – at the time – chaotic lifestyle. However, the hand-to-mouth existence of couriering is punishing especially when someone who needs to stop, can’t stop. As a courier Alex joined the IWGB and later became the Chief Exec. The role naturally gave him a much more stable source of income which aligned better with a more stable personal life.
While having a stable income was a welcome change from couriering, his actual income isn’t way ahead of the income of the workers IWGB represent. All employees of IWGB, all the way to the top, are paid £17.50 per hour, much lower than the large salaries other union Chief Executives can receive. But despite the changes IWGB have made with regards to the way they operate it is debateable that they can hold much sway when it comes to protecting the rights of the workers they represent. The membership of IWGB is low, and unlikely to grow, especially when riders have proven that strikes can be organised without external help, epitomising the essential nature of ‘people power’ that unions traditionally stand for.
I asked Morgan after the panel discussion about the formation of the IWGB union and how it fares in an environment where the workers have to invent new ways of organising:
“I think you’re right about riders often not coming from countries with strong cultures of trade unionism, and that’s part of what’s going on. I think it’s also the case that this kind of work builds really strong communities – with drivers often grouping together to support one another at work, given the absence of support from the companies. Often these communities are based on ethno-linguistic identities. This can lead to a scepticism of outsiders. When doing some research at a McDonald’s near Leeds, I found that riders sometimes worried that unions were “scams” – seeing them as total outsiders.
“The IWGB was founded in 2013 because of workers’ frustrations with big, established unions. It is led by workers and tries to avoid relying too heavily on bureaucracy (i.e. on staff working for the union who have minimal experience of being workers in other sectors). In the case of food delivery, the IWGB has current and former riders (like Alex) as the public face of the union, but because it’s a small union it still relies a lot on volunteers and some union staff who have never been riders, so it still struggles to overcome the challenge of being seen as an outsider.
“My own view is that it’s really difficult for unions to avoid slipping into bureaucratisation. The most important thing is that workers feel involved and empowered in their union, seeing the union as a collective endeavour rather than a service to call on when they need it, and that they are able to challenge the leadership through open and democratic structures.”
Deliveroo riders know that more orders mean more money, and so do Deliveroo PLC who are the ultimate winners reporting profits of £726 million in 2023, but they should carry the ultimate responsibility for the wellbeing of their workers too. Gig economy work is fine when it works, but just like those dodgy electric motors fixed to bikes, it is fragile and when it breaks, there’s no one there to pick up the pieces. This new model of union organising might offer a chance at fixing it.
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