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From The Socialist newspaper, 10 February 2021
York couriers call on council for protection from "fear of dismissal"
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Ethan Bradley, IWGB Couriers and Logistics Branch and York IWGB
Key-working couriers are currently locked in a battle against York city council in a bid to protect our income - and jobs. Gig economy riders, who have worked throughout the pandemic delivering meals, groceries and medicines, have seen incomes plunge rapidly.
We are lobbying to win city-centre access throughout the day. These areas are typically fully pedestrianised, but as local couriers' union York IWGB argues, these restrictions are not taken into account by companies - and this leaves us under constant fear of dismissal.
These gig-employers - including Deliveroo, UberEats and Just Eat - misclassify couriers as self-employed contractors, rather than as workers. They exploit this legal loophole to deny couriers basic rights, such as holiday pay and minimum wage entitlement.
It also allows them to sack riders with no due process, no appeal, and no right to union representation. The union's national 'Clapped and Scrapped' campaign has detailed many cases of riders being left suddenly unable to support themselves and their families and facing extreme hardship.
To justify these terminations, the companies claim that riders failed to meet delivery targets. York's rigid and inflexible restrictions - and similar restrictions elsewhere - leave the unenviable choice between risking a £50 police fine (which can currently wipe out a day's income) and risking losing livelihoods by not meeting impossibly tight targets.
Couriers have provided a lifeline throughout this crisis: to vulnerable residents, to public health, to our city's cafés and restaurants and protecting countless other jobs. The council needs to listen to our petition, and lobby and step up to protect us. And it needs to do so now.
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
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In The Socialist 10 February 2021:
News
Tories admit market failure - we want our NHS back!
Question mark over AstraZeneca's vaccine to protect against new Covid variant
Big Energy piles on the misery
Racism
Black Workers' Charter: A programme to fight racism
Grenfell
Grenfell: Are we any closer to justice?
TUSC
TUSC online conference: Preparing to build a working-class force for the local elections in May
Ex-Labour socialists preparing to stand for TUSC in Devon
Workplace news
Striking British Gas workers fighting to win
PCS: Vote for rank-and-file socialist Broad Left Network candidates
Hackney schools workers to strike
York couriers call on council for protection from "fear of dismissal"
Court workers to ballot in fight for safety
NSSN meeting: Fight together against the Tories and bosses' Covid offensive
International news
Myanmar coup - For a workers-led struggle for democracy and socialism!
Turkey: Bogaziçi university students protest appointment of government loyalist as rector
Campaigns and party news
Why I joined the Socialist Party - a nurse
Why I joined the Socialist Party - a student
London fire victims lobby Tory mayoral candidate
Why you should come to Socialist Students online conference
Readers' opinion
Book that inspired me: God's bits of wood
Starmer ditches Labour movement tradition for cheap trick
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