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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

gig workers

Just Eat Takeaway.com to Stop Using Gig Workers in Europe

Just Eat Takeaway.com just made its sentiments known about how to classify gig workers — but not in the way you’d expect from a third-party delivery service. Company boss Jitse Groen told BBC this week that Just Eat Takeaway.com will “end” gig working in its operations in Europe.

“We’re a large multinational company with quite a lot of money and we want to insure our people,” he said. “We want to be certain they do have benefits, that we do pay taxes on those workers.” 

“Large multinational company” aptly describes Just Eat Takeaway.com these days. The company itself is the product of Netherlands-based Takeaway.com’s recent acquisition of the U.K.’s Just Eat. And in June, the newly formed company announced it would acquire Grubhub, creating the largest food delivery service in the world outside of China.

All that M&A means more hiring. But this hasn’t been a particularly easy time for gig workers, in Europe or elsewhere. With the pandemic keeping more folks at home, delivery orders are up. That demand renders the folks driving or biking the food to customers frontline workers at higher risk of exposure to the coronavirus. Under the status of gig worker, these individuals do not have access to certain workplace protections (e.g., paid sick leave) they would as employees.

Just Eat Takeaway.com’s changes to worker classification may only apply to Europe right now, but the company has operations all over the globe. The aforementioned Grubhub deal will soon give the company a presence in the U.S., too, where the debate over gig workers is especially heated right now. Just this week, a California judge ordered Uber and Lyft to reclassify its contract workers as employee. For Uber, that would mean changing the underlying model around its Eats business, too.

Groen did not say when the change for its his company’s European workers would take place. And how Just Eat Takeaway.com handles U.S.-based workers once the Grubhub deal kicks in remains to be seen. 

While Just Eat Takeaway.com looks to remove many of the downsides of gig worker jobs, others are spending millions to fight any changes to the system. At some point a new standard around benefits for these workers might emerge from the fight. Let’s hope it’s one that values human health and well-being over food delivery’s ever-elusive path to profitability.  

Is the DoorDash-Pennsylvania AG Partnership a Red Herring or the Start of a New Era for Gig Workers?

DoorDash has entered into a public-private partnership with the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General to further expand financial, healthcare, and childcare assistance to couriers (called “Dashers”) working for the third-party delivery service. DoorDash said in a company press release that this expanded support applies Dashers in Pennsylvania working for its service as well as DoorDash subsidiary Caviar.

Most of the initiatives announced build on existing support DoorDash has provided to Dashers throughout most of the pandemic. For those diagnosed with COVID-19 or/or instructed to self-quarantine because of the virus, DoorDash is providing financial assistance, applicable to those that have worked for the service for 30 days (the number was previously 60). The third-party delivery service is also subsidizing telehealth costs related to the virus for any Dasher.

Notably, the company has also launched a childcare support program for the top Dashers in its Dasher Rewards program. Those that qualify can receive financial assistance for childcare while schools remain closed due to COVID-19. According to the release, the program will provide a financial bridge to parents until Pandemic Unemployment Assistance becomes available.”

As new developments for gig workers go, none of these initiatives is particularly unique. Most third-party delivery services have been offering some financial relief as well as protective gear to workers during the pandemic. One assumes this is at least partially in response to pressure from advocates and restaurant industry personnel to take better care of gig workers, who normally don’t receive benefits like paid sick leave, healthcare, and workers compensation. In fact, DoorDash was among the companies fighting California’s Assembly Bill 5, which was signed into law in 2019 and reclassifies contract workers as employees. 

What is new to this story is the involvement of a state government. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro is particularly vocal about how gig workers are treated. One of the stated goals on his website is to “end worker misclassification.” Depending on how extensive the partnership with DoorDash is, and how long it runs, other states could follow Shapiro’s lead.

It’s unclear right now if DoorDash’s newfound partnership is an about-face for the company or just another PR stunt. Recall that in addition to fighting California’s AB5, DoorDash was also the subject of a lawsuit filed by DC Attorney General Karl Racine, that one over unfair tipping practices for Dashers. 

The answer will probably not come until we’re further out from this pandemic and business regains some sort of normalcy. As I mentioned above, the major delivery services are providing at least some form of relief to workers right now. How long these protections extend in the post-pandemic world will show whether how long-lasting third-party delivery’s commitment to its gig workers’ well being actually is.

Instacart’s Gig Shoppers Strike to Protest Pay Structure

The gig economy so far seems to be great for companies that want to scale but lousy for workers that want to make any money. As such, gig economy workers have been rising up in protest over the past year, with the latest example being Instacart, as its “Shoppers” (the people who actually get and deliver the groceries) launched a three day strike yesterday over how tips are implemented.

An Instacart strike has been looming for a while, with the reasons for the protest spelled out by Instacart Shopper Vanessa Bain in a blog post published last month. In said post, Bain writes:

On November 3–5, thousands of Instacart Shoppers will be holding a workers’ protest. We are demanding that Instacart restore the default tip amount to at least 10% and to remove the confusing “service fee” which the company pockets for themselves.

Bain goes on in the post to describe the ways Instacart has changed its payment structure over the years. Net/net, Bain and other protesters are looking to raise the default tip amount from 5 percent to 10 percent. According to a different blog post from “Instacart Workers” directed towards Instacart Founder and CEO, Apoorva Mehta, this is the fourth consecutive year for Shopper walkouts. That post too goes on to provide a litany of ways in which Instacart Shoppers’ pay has been futzed with, seemingly to the detriment of workers each time.

Right now we don’t know how many people are participating in the protests. Fast Company reports that there are 130,000 Instacart Shoppers in North America, and doubted that this protest would cause the company much harm.

But the issue over gig worker pay is a recurring one in the world of food delivery. In August, DoorDash announced a new pay structure for its Dashers after public backlash over its tipping collection policy. And in May, Postmates faced protests from its couriers after they said a corporate change in payments resulted in incomes being slashed by 30 percent.

All of these protests come at a time when California passed AB 5, a law looking to reclassify gig workers, giving them additional rights and benefits. Companies like DoorDash and Uber, both built on gig labor, are looking to be exempt from the new law when it takes effect in January.

Food delivery is only going to get bigger, so it’s more important than ever for consumers to educate themselves on all of the costs associated with this new convenience.