Just Eat to move entirely to self-employed ‘gig worker’ model in Britain

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Just Eat Takeaway.com, Europe’s largest food online ordering and delivery service, said on Tuesday it will reorganise in Britain, ending a service by which it employs its own couriers, a decision that will impact the jobs of around 1,870 workers.

Takeaway has been a prominent defender of European plans for rules giving couriers rights to full employment.

However it also makes use of self-employed couriers, commonly referred to as “gig workers”, to deliver more than 90% of its meals in Britain.

Competitors including Deliveroo and Uber use the “self employed” or “contractor” model, which Just Eat has complained leaves it at a competitive disadvantage.

The approximately 1,700 couriers employed by Just Eat’s British “Scoober” service have been given six weeks notice that they will no longer be employed on full contracts, Just Eat said in a statement.

Another 170 in the company’s operational department will also be impacted, the company said.

Just Eat said it will retain the employed courier model in most parts of continental Europe.

The company uses the gig model in Ireland and Slovakia. In France, Just Eat uses employed “Scoober” couriers in Paris but not in other cities.

In the rest of the European Union it employs its couriers.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling, Editing by Louise Heavens)