Any deliverance for the deliverers?

When we think of someone who is self-employed, we often imagine an enterprising entrepreneur, someone who decides exactly when they themselves work, and for how long.

It might be hard graft, but above all self-employment confers control – you don’t have to work if you choose not to.

But in the era of the gig economy – where full-time, secure work is now the exception not the rule – self-employment is little more than a legal loophole used by companies in their single-minded quest to slash labour costs.

These so-called self-employed workers are far from being their own boss – many work long hours with very little choice in the matter, and in the process they sacrifice guaranteed workers’ rights such as the right to a minimum wage, holiday pay and sick pay.

A shocking new BBC investigation sheds light on this growing trend, after an undercover reporter infiltrated an agency which supplies delivery drivers for online retail giant Amazon.

The reporter was hired by the agency AHC services as a self-employed contractor and worked for two weeks. Over that time, he worked 11 hours a day, above the legal limit for delivery drivers.

In the first week, minus deductions such as insurance, he earned ÂŁ93.47 for three days’ work, the equivalent of ÂŁ2.59 per hour. In the second week, he earned ÂŁ4.76 per hour – in both weeks he earned well below the legal minimum wage of ÂŁ7.20 an hour for those over 25.

Just another day

For the delivery drivers the undercover reporter spoke to, this was all just another day in the life. The drivers told of gruelling days spent rushing to deliver up to 200 parcels each day – many admitted breaking the speed limit to stay on schedule, with one driver noting he would drive up to 120 mph on the motorway. Most were expected to be available at least six days a week.

Rest breaks – to which employees are legally entitled to – were a mathematical impossibility for many drivers, who had to deliver their allocated number of parcels each day for a fixed rate. One driver told the BBC he’d once defecated in a bag in the back of his van to stay on schedule.

The BBC also interviewed a former AHC supervisor, Cody Cooper, who told of one driver who had worked seven days a week for three months straight without any break. She ordered the driver to stop driving after he had reported falling asleep at the wheel.

The harrowing story of Amazon delivery drivers, which will be broadcast tonight (November 11) at 7.30 pm on the BBC’s Inside Out, is the latest in a series of investigations exposed by major media outlets of workers being exploited by traditional employment agencies or app-based technology companies.

Unite played a central role in exposing the Victorian working practices at Sport’s Direct’s central warehouse in Derbyshire, where agency workers were paid below minimum wage and punished for the smallest perceived infraction.

It has also surfaced how workers in the gig economy, also classified as self-employed contractors, are controlled and exploited by companies such Uber and Deliveroo.

But as more of this rampant exploitation comes to light, a fightback is steadily building.

Spotlight

The public spotlight and pressure from Unite resulted in Sports Direct’s boss being hauled before a business select committee for questioning earlier this year. Eventually, Unite secured back pay for thousands of workers and Sports Direct agreed to drop zero-hours contracts for retail staff. The Sports Direct campaign continues as Unite organises more and more workers and has forced the company to agree to an independent review of its working practices.

Last month, Uber drivers won a court case, brought forward by the GMB, which found that the drivers should be classified as employees and so should be entitled to the minimum wage and other entitlements such as sick pay and holiday pay.

And just last week, a group of Deliveroo riders in London announced they would formally be seeking trade union recognition – a move that, if successful, would also mean that the riders will gain employee status.

In the wake of the Uber decision, Unite announced it would be setting up what Unite head of legal services Howard Beckett described as a “special ‘bogus self-employment’ unit” which would “pursue employers who were shamelessly dodging their responsibilities by classifying workers as self-employed.”

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said that for those falsely self-employed working for the gig economy and agencies, it’s “a world of insecure work and casualised labour”.

“But instead of a tap on the shoulder or the brass tally of the docks from decades ago, workers are left waiting for a text or the beep of an app to know if they have work,” he argued.

“We cannot turn the clock back to the Victorian era,” Turner added. “The government needs to put a floor underneath all workers’ rights. Otherwise living standards will fall and peoples’ working lives become increasingly insecure.”

Don’t forget to tune in to the BBC’s Inside Out investigation tonight at 7.30 pm or watch it on playback on BBC iPlayer.