Uber Eats to no longer use freelancers as deliverers, only temporary workers
Uber Eats will no longer use freelancers as meal deliverers. From next spring, the platform will only work with temporary workers in the Netherlands. Uber Eats broke the news to its thousands of freelance delivery workers on Wednesday, the Telegraaf reports.
Uber has been quietly preparing for the transition in recent months, interim director Nick Hilhorst of Uber Eats told the newspaper. “We have had discussions with the unions and with experts in the field of social security,” he said. He said they have been in a give-and-take conversation searching for consensus, which he said was "new to us.”
The main reason for the switch to temporary workers is the changing laws and regulations. “The court rulings in several cases about hiring freelancers also play a role,” Hilhorst said. “If you had asked me personally, I would have liked to continue working with self-employed workers. But if the rules change, we at Uber will adapt to that.”
The decision does not apply to Uber taxi drivers, Hilhorst added. “That is a completely different category. They have often invested a lot of money into a car and also have to arrange a taxi license, among other things.”
Last year, the American tech company experimented with employment agencies Adecco and Randstad, asking freelance Uber Eats delivery workers whether they’d like to work as a temporary worker via an employment agency. According to Hilhorst, the test was a success and one in six of its delivery workers now has a temporary employment contract.
According to Femke Hellemons of Adecco, delivery workers aren’t only concerned about how much they earn. “Determining when you work and how many hours you want is at least as important. Some delivery workers like the fact that they have more security through a temporary employment contract, others like to earn something extra in addition to their job,” she told the newspaper. “It is really not just 18-year-olds. I understand that they are not interested in building up a pension. But they may find the vacation days a nice bonus.”
Trade union FNV is pleased that Uber Eats is taking this step, though vice-chair Zakaria Boufangacha added that “they’re doing it because we forced” them to. “These deliverers will now receive more protection. Although we still have to discuss with Uber’s management whether they will also apply the collective bargaining agreement for professional goods transport. Because in our view, they fall under that.”
