Delivery apps Deliveroo, Uber Eats and JustEat have agreed to introduce enhanced immigration checks on people working as riders on their app after pressure from the UK government.
The three platforms will increase their number Right to Work Checks After increased scrutiny of account sharing practices, leading to high-profile incidents, including the death of a 17-year-old boy and a passenger biting off a customer's thumb.
The change aims to identify and target “alternative riders”, who carried out deliveries on accounts owned by someone else.
There's a good chance that when you order food on Deliveroo, Uber Eats or Just Eat, the person delivering to you won't match the account name you receive when placing the order.
Under UK law, freelancers are allowed to replace themselves with another worker to do their work. Companies like Deliveroo have long pointed to this law when asked about the practice.
However, opponents say it opens a window for people who are legally unable to work, due to obstacles such as their citizenship status or age, to easily switch shifts on the platform.
“We are committed to cracking down on unsupervised account sharing – and this meeting was a very positive step in the right direction,” said Michael Tomlinson, the UK’s illegal immigration secretary.
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The UK government's intervention comes as delivery platforms face intense pressure following several high-profile incidents involving surrogate riders.
This has been highlighted in recent months with the case of Jennifer Rocha, who faces jail time after she bit off Deliveroo customer Steven Jenkinson's thumb following a heated argument.
Roche, who will be sentenced on Friday, was working as a substitute driver for another Deliveroo account in December when she delivered pizza to Jenkinson.
Jenkinson, a plumber, He told the BBC He lost his source of livelihood as a result of the accident.
However, Jenkinson was unable to go to Deliveroo to seek compensation.
This is because while Roche was legally permitted to operate in the UK, because she was acting as a substitute driver, Deliveroo could not have been held legally liable for its actions.
“Financially, I'm devastated. I'm out of work. I'm in debt a huge amount and I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Jenkinson told the BBC.
Activists accused delivery platforms of turning a blind eye to the activities of substitute drivers.
Previous investigations have found that children routinely worked on the platform, leading to the tragic end of one driver.
Leo, whose surname was not given, began Rent a Deliveroo account From another contestant when he was 15 years old.
When he was 17, Leo was killed while riding a rented motorcycle. He had been working for the company for two years when he died, although the minimum age for Deliveroo riders is 18.
A Deliveroo spokesperson said: “We are the first major platform to roll out live Right to Work verification, registration process and identity verification technology to ensure that only replacements with Right to Work can continue to ride on our platform.”
“We will continue to work in close collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior and industry leaders to support efforts in this area.”
Legal loopholes associated with the gig industry have created something of a Wild West in terms of workers' rights, especially on delivery platforms.
that investigation By the Bureau of Investigative Journalism as of 2021, it was found that a third of drivers earned £2 per hour.
The government's crackdown is also likely to be part of the UK's anti-immigration campaign ahead of a general election expected this fall.
In its press release, the government said the opportunity to work illegally was one of the biggest “pull factors” driving illegal immigration to the UK.
