Deliveroo pedals the new language of the gig economy

Deliveroo couriers wear “branded clothing” rather than uniforms, receive “invoices” rather than payslips and face “termination” rather than the sack, according to internal “vocabulary guidelines” the online company has given to its UK staff.

The six-page “dos and don’ts” document about how to refer to couriers, seen by the Financial Times, underscores the sensitivity of “gig economy” companies to any language that implies they employ the people who work via their apps.

Businesses such as Deliveroo class these people as self-employed but legal tussles have broken out across the UK over the question of whether the companies exert too much control over them to be allowed to continue to treat them as independent.

The government is also concerned: it has commissioned an independent review by Matthew Taylor, a former adviser to Tony Blair, into whether the legal system is keeping up with the changing world of work. Mr Taylor has said he wants the law to be clarified to make sure companies cannot have the “best of both worlds” by controlling workers without employing them.

Last week, 20 Deliveroo couriers started the process of bringing a legal claim against the company. The couriers allege they are misclassified as “self-employed” and so are owed employment rights such as the minimum wage and holiday pay.

Deliveroo’s list of “dos and don’ts” — divided into two columns — advises staff on how they should talk to or about couriers, and words and phrases to avoid. In the “do” column, the approved wording is: “Rider invoices are processed fortnightly”; on the “don’t” side it reads “We pay you every two weeks”. In the “do” column comes, “Yesterday you logged in later than you agreed to be available”; on the “don’t” side, “Yesterday you were late to start your shift.”

“Please suggest a time when you are available to discuss your Service Delivery Standards as part of a Supplier Agreement Review” is a “do”, as opposed to: “Please attend a disciplinary meeting so we can review your performance and issue you with a final warning.”

Deliveroo said: “We have almost 1,000 full-time staff and work with over 15,000 riders in the UK. We ensure that employees know how to work with our partners, which includes training and guidelines to follow when talking to customers, restaurants, and, of course, self-employed riders.”

The document has emerged at a time of increasing scrutiny over how gig economy companies treat the people who work on their apps. MPs on the work and pensions committee criticised both Uber and Deliveroo on Thursday as they released copies of the contracts the companies give to workers. Frank Field, the chairman of the committee, called Uber’s contract “gibberish”.

These companies parade the “flexibility” their model offers to drivers but it seems the only real flexibility is enjoyed by the companies themselves

“They are well aware that many, if not most, of their drivers speak English as a second language — they recently lost a court case trying to escape TfL’s new English-testing rules for private-hire drivers — yet their contract is almost unintelligible.”

He also criticised Deliveroo for putting a clause in its contract that told workers they could not challenge their self-employed status in an employment tribunal. Lawyers say this clause is unenforceable and Deliveroo has said it will remove it.

“These companies parade the ‘flexibility’ their model offers to drivers but it seems the only real flexibility is enjoyed by the companies themselves,” Mr Field said. “It does seem a marvellous business model if you can get away with it.”

Deliveroo said: “As a British business, we’re proud to offer well-paid flexible work to 15,000 riders across the UK and we’re committed to ensuring that as the company continues to grow riders continue to benefit from that growth. As outlined to the work and pensions committee, we are always revising our supplier agreement to ensure it reflects how we work with riders in practice. That is why we are removing the clause discussed, which has never been enforced, in the coming weeks.”

Uber said: “We recognise our terms could be written in plainer English and we started the process of revising them some time ago.”

A spokesman added: “Almost all taxi and private-hire drivers in the UK are self-employed. We’ve always been clear to drivers who use Uber that they are self-employed and free to choose if, when and where they drive with no shifts, minimum hours or uniforms. There is nothing in our terms to stop anybody challenging this. In fact a small group of drivers recently took us to an employment tribunal claiming they’re not self-employed.”