{"id":12048,"date":"2017-04-07T14:59:43","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T13:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=12048"},"modified":"2017-04-07T15:54:36","modified_gmt":"2017-04-07T14:54:36","slug":"deliveroo-doublespeak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=12048","title":{"rendered":"Deliveroo \u00e2\u20ac\u0098doublespeak\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Unless you move to a foreign country, having to learn another language seems an unusual requirement for a job in a firm that specialises in delivering takeaways.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But managers at gig-economy<\/a> company Deliveroo are expected to do just that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong with pushing employees to develop new skills?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 you may ask.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unfortunately Deliveroo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s motives do not appear to be so benign, a six-page internal document leaked to press<\/a> this week reveals.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The company isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interested in furthering its staff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s knowledge of French or Polish. Instead they want them to learn a language that more closely resembles George Orwell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doublespeak.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The document lists the vocabulary managers should use when speaking to staff, seemingly to avoid instilling the idea that their couriers are employed by the company.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For instance, a manager could not tell a group of new couriers at a Deliveroo recruitment centre that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got the job and they should pick up their uniforms, sign their contracts and collect their rota.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They would have to tell the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bindependent suppliers<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 at the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsupply centre<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been \u00e2\u20ac\u015bonboarded<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and they should pick up their \u00e2\u20ac\u015bbranded clothing<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, sign their \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsupplier agreements<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and \u00e2\u20ac\u015bindicate their availability<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rather than telling a staff member who has been absent that \u00e2\u20ac\u015byou did not attend a shift,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Deliveroo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s managers are instructed to say \u00e2\u20ac\u015byou were unavailable to accept orders at a previously agreed time<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Under no illusion <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Deliberately or not, Deliveroo is attacking the fundamental purpose of language, which is to communicate. The firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s couriers, like others in the gig-economy, are under no illusion that they are classed as self-employed. But by attempting to restrict words that bear any relation to accepted employment practices, and the rights and protections that go with them, Deliveroo is trying to ban the type language its staff would use to question their treatment at work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As workers in the gig-economy, Deliveroo couriers have no right to the minimum wage, holiday or sick pay, or any of the other benefits employees in regular roles are entitled to \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a situation which benefits Deliveroo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bottom line enormously.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The problem extends beyond the confines of Deliveroo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s internal communications and out across the gig-economy and strikes at the heart of how convoluted language and legal gymnastics are being used to roll back workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This week chair of the work and pensions select committee, Labour MP Frank Fields, also blasted the incomprehensible employment contracts<\/a> used by Deliveroo, Uber<\/a> and other gig-economy companies, which he said are designed to hobble attempts by workers to stand up for themselves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bQuite frankly the Uber contract is gibberish. They are well aware that many, if not most, of their drivers speak English as a second language \u00e2\u20ac\u201d they recently lost a court case trying to escape TfL’s new English testing rules for private hire drivers \u00e2\u20ac\u201d yet their contract is almost unintelligible.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Egregious clause\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fields added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd [Uber’s contract], like Deliveroo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, contains this egregious clause about not challenging the official designation of ‘self-employed’, when the way they work looks in most ways an awful lot like being employed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese companies parade the ‘flexibility’ their model offers to drivers but it seems the only real flexibility is enjoyed by the companies themselves. It does seem a marvellous business model if you can get away with it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite assistant general secretary, Steve Turner, called on the government to introduce measures that would curb the exploitation of gig-economy workers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor many of these workers eking out a living in the gig-economy, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe cannot turn the clock back to the Victorian era. The government needs to put a floor underneath all workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights. Otherwise living standards will fall and peoples\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 working lives become increasingly insecure.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unless you move to a foreign country, having to learn another language seems an unusual requirement for a job in a firm that specialises in delivering takeaways.   But managers at gig-economy company Deliveroo are expected to do just that.   \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong with pushing employees to develop new skills?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 you may ask.   Unfortunately […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[613,509,556],"wps_subtitle":"The language of gig economy contracts","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12049,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12048\/revisions\/12049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}