WORKERS employed by courier company Deliveroo in Sheffield, South Yorkshire staged a rally on Saturday against pay cuts and exploitation.

The workers have formed a branch of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain to resist attacks by the company on their already low pay.

They are supported by Sheffield Trade Union Council (TUC).

The courier industry is notorious for its involvement in the “gig economy” in which workers are deemed to be self-employed without entitlement to statutory minimum wages, holiday pay, sick pay and other rights.

Sheffield TUC secretary Martin Mayer said: “No company should think it can get away with a business model based on low pay, casualisation, bogus self-employment and arbitrary cuts in pay for deliveries. 

“Yet that is precisely what Deliveroo – a hugely profitable global company – is doing. Fair pay, job security and union recognition are essential rights for all workers.”
 
Mr Mayer said said Deliveroo in Sheffield had reduced a £4.25 minimum per-delivery payment to as little as £2.21.
 
“At the same time, the mass recruitment of casual staff has seen couriers struggle to get enough work in a day to make ends meet,” he said.

“Some Sheffield Deliveroo workers have been complaining of a drop in earnings of as much as 40 per cent in recent weeks.”

The workers staged a rally in Sheffield city centre on Saturday before dispersing to recruit other Sheffield couriers to the new union branch.

Sheffield TUC is running a “Sheffield Needs a Pay Rise” campaign.