By Sophia Stanford and Meike Leonard and Andy Jehring
22:35 03 Feb 2024, updated 00:58 04 Feb 2024
- Customers had to wait for hours as drivers brawled outside restaurants
Thousands of takeaway delivery drivers staged wildcat strikes in protest over poor pay on Friday night – leaving customers across the country hungry.
Many were left waiting hours for food as fist fights broke out on the picket line between operators for Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats.
One customer posted online: ‘Bad night to crave a Nando’s.’
More than 3,000 riders staged the walkout between 5pm and 10pm from Glasgow to Brighton, with over 90 protests in London alone.
Footage posted online showed riders honking their horns as they drove in convoy before setting up pickets as part of the biggest action in the sector for years.
Some workers refused to strike, which led to punch-ups as those taking action tried to take food from them, with police making at least five arrests.
After one furious courier blocked from a McDonald’s in London shouted, ‘I’m just trying to get my delivery’, a striker said: ‘We’re doing this for you. We’re doing this for everyone.’
The protest was organised by a group of Brazilian drivers on WhatsApp groups and social media to fight allegedly long hours, low pay and dangerous conditions.
The Supreme Court ruled in November that drivers and moped riders were self-employed and did not have the right to bargain collectively or demand a guaranteed minimum wage.
Instead, platforms such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats can pay as little as £2.80 for a two-mile delivery.
The protesters claim this forces drivers to risk their lives by flouting driving laws to make enough deliveries quickly enough to get by.
Just Eat driver Harry Virgoe, 24, said: ‘If you’re fast you can make OK money, but… you have to go through red lights and drive really fast to drop food off quick enough to make enough.
‘If you’re law-obeying and stick to the path you won’t make enough money. There have been many occasions where I was nearly hit at high speeds and could have died.’
A 29-year-old driver in east London added: ‘The main things we need to do our job – like fuel, food delivery insurance, and phone contracts – have hiked in price, yet delivery fees haven’t budged.’
Some drivers criticised the violence used by a few protesters.
Deliveroo rider Tarun, 27, said they lined up outside restaurants in Earls Court, west London, and were ‘stopping drivers, taking their food, and smashing it to the floor’.
He added: ‘What is he going to do? Now the app may cancel his account because he hasn’t delivered the food.’
Delivery driver Emma Lee said her tyre was slashed eight times after refused to strike. She added: ‘Many took it as an excuse to cause chaos. My co-workers decided to try and intimidate me and a few others that simply wanted to work.’
Mr Virgoe filmed the moment he was blocked by drivers in balaclavas from picking up an order.
He said: ‘When I turned up I heard someone shout, ‘Oi!’, and they all gathered around. They repeatedly said, ‘Reject the order’. Some had balaclavas on. I didn’t have a choice when cancelling. I felt a bit threatened. If I didn’t reject it I don’t know what they would have done.’
The strike’s organiser, known only as Delivery Job UK on Instagram, said the demonstration was to protest at the ‘appalling’ working conditions faced by riders.
He wrote: ‘Food delivery companies are exploiting workers mercilessly. We’ve been without any sort of wage adjustment for the tasks we complete for four long years.’
The main demand of the strike is a pay increase across all apps to a £5 minimum fee, with an extra £2 for every mile after the first.
In the past six years, drivers say this fee has fallen from £4 to £3.15.
The action made fees rocket as increasing numbers of drivers logged off their delivery apps. In one case, the charge for a job that would usually earn a rider around £7 skyrocketed to £70.
There was no pay offer from delivery firms, and more demonstrations are planned.
The reaction was mixed among customers.
Kiera Fyles, who had to wait hours for a delivery, pledged never to use the Deliveroo app again because the firm ‘knew about the strike’ but still argued against a refund.
She added: ‘Bad night to crave a Nando’s. Ordered at 4.45pm, Deliveroo still telling me it was on the way two hours later! Didn’t tell me their drivers were on strike.’
Fellow customer Misan Aviomoh said: ‘Solidarity to the drivers!!’
A social media user called OJ posted: ‘I stand with… the drivers in solidarity.’
Deliveroo said: ‘We offer riders the self-employed, flexible work they tell us they value, alongside protections.
‘Riders earn at least the national minimum wage, plus vehicle costs, for the time they are working with us, though the vast majority earn far more than this.
‘Riders are also insured for free, covering them if they are in an accident or injured while working, and receive income protection if they are unwell and cannot work.’
Just Eat and Uber Eats did not respond to requests for comment.
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
