ZCZC
BCN-26
FRANCE-LABOUR-FOOD-BIKE-DELIVERY
French food delivery cyclists to strike over pay
PARIS, July 6, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – French food-bike delivery staff working
for companies like Uber Eats and Deliveroo are set to strike next week
demanding better pay and benefits including bonuses when it rains, they said
Thursday.
The weeklong strike from Sunday — deliberately timed to coincide with the
World Cup when many customers are dining in front of TV screens — will also
include staff from Foodora, Stuart and Glovo.
“It’s urgent that we reverse the balance of power,” the Parisian delivery-
workers’ collective CLAP wrote on Twitter, noting that next week was set to
be “one of the most profitable for the platforms”.
Issuing a nationwide strike call, the collective urged customers to join
the action by refusing to order food next week.
The strikers demand standardised pay for a guaranteed minimum number of
hours’ work per cyclist, as well as bonuses for working evenings, weekends
and when it is raining.
“For several months we have seen our pay decrease and the delivery
distances go up,” CLAP said, with the amount of guaranteed work per cyclist
becoming “more uncertain” due to a recruitment push.
The cyclists accused the government of helping to make permanent what it
called “a system based on the precarity of its workers” through planned
legislation.
An amendment to a bill backed by the labour minister would create a
charter allowing such services to continue treating employees as freelancers
rather than permanent staff with better rights.
Like other big cities around the world, Paris and other French hubs such
as Marseille have seen a proliferation of food delivery bikes and mopeds
zipping around the streets in recent years.
The Petit Robert dictionary added the word “uberisation” in 2017,
following a wave of debate over precarious conditions for people working for
new “gig economy” companies like the car-hailing giant Uber.
BSS/AFP/HR/1125