Striking JustEat couriers from the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) will demonstrate outside of JustEat client Greggs’s Newcastle HQ building today, Thursday 24th March, at 1 pm over pay cuts. Couriers are employed by subcontractor Stuart Delivery – ultimately owned by the French government – which slashed the base rate of delivery pay in December 2021 from £4.50 to £3.40 amidst the cost of living crisis.
Couriers have previously targeted major JustEat clients McDonald’s and KFC as part of what has become the longest gig-economy strike in history. The strike has now been running for 91 days.
Bryn Atkinson Woodcock, Stuart Courier, said: “As a client of JustEat and Stuart, it is important for Greggs to be aware of what is happening to the people that deliver their food. The cost of fuel is soaring, all of my bills have skyrocketed, and yet my wages are getting smaller and smaller. How can anyone looking at key workers struggling to support their families, turn a blind eye and say “not my problem”?
Stuart Delivery couriers are forced to work upwards of 12 hours a day for poverty pay, which runs contrary to Greggs’s commitment to socially responsible business practices throughout its supply chain, in which the firm claims all workers should work reasonable hours and that “wages should always be enough to meet basic needs”.
Parirs Dixon, Stuart Courier and Chair of Sheffield Couriers’ Branch (IWGB), said: “Greggs pride themselves on being an ethical company, treating workers fairly in all areas of their supply chain. It is completely hypocritical for them to stand idly by whilst their exclusive delivery partner, JustEat, continues to allow Stuart to pay its drivers below living wage, fires drivers for issues outside of their control, and refuses to listen to the grievances of their workforce.”
Stuart Delivery has one of the highest margins on deliveries in the gig economy and handed a £2 million pay rise to CEO Damien Bon in 2020. Stuart drivers are demanding a pay rise as couriers begin to join the strike across the country, with actions appearing in Chesterfield, Heckmondwike, Middlesbrough, Leicester, Belfast, Kent, Colchester among others.
Image: IWGB
