Deliveroo rejects call to guarantee riders the national living wage

FOOD delivery start-up Deliveroo has rejected a suggestion from Labour MP Frank Field that its riders should receive the national living wage of £7.83 an hour.

On Monday, Mr Field published a report into the pay and job security of Deliveroo riders, which recommended “a guaranteed minimum payment for riders who have made their services available to the company”.

A guaranteed wage, Mr Field wrote, would allow Deliveroo “to fulfil the level of service expected by consumers” and “would signal a much needed redistribution of risk between Deliveroo and individual riders”.

Mr Field made the suggestion based on evidence given by 179 Deliveroo riders, some put forward by the company and others by unions. Some riders reported earning as little as £2 per hour.

However, a Deliveroo spokesman said that the company would not introduce guaranteed hourly wages for its riders. “Deliveroo is proud to offer flexible well-paid work where riders on average earn well over £10 an hour, well above the national living wage,” it said. Guaranteed hourly wages would remove the flexibility offered to Deliveroo riders, the spokesman said: “This is incompatible with the flexibility that characterises on-demand working, which riders tell us is their number one reason for working with Deliveroo.”

Deliveroo CEO Will Shu this week wrote in The Daily Telegraph of his desire to see the Government create a charter for gig economy workers, to protect employment status and allow the business to give them benefits.