NHS medical couriers landmark Million-pound holiday pay claim to be heard next week · IWGB

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  • RACIST ASSAULT OF NOTTINGHAM DELIVEROO RIDER FOLLOWS MURDER OF TAKIEDDINE BOUDHANE IN LONDON
    https://iwgb.org.uk

    · Delivery worker assaulted in Nottingham after he intervened to prevent an altercation between another delivery worker and two pedestrians on Monday 6 January.

    · The assault comes days after the murder of UberEats and Deliveroo rider Takieddine Boudhane, fatally stabbed in Finsbury Park, north London on Friday.

    · Mr. Boudhane’s death has led to renewed calls for better rights and protections for delivery drivers, who assume high risk for poverty pay at a time IWGB members report a rise in assaults.

    · Delivery workers are routinely denied sick pay and holiday pay, meaning many cannot afford to take time off work following accidents or assaults.

    08 January: The incident took place at approximately 20.00 on Upper Parliament Street in Nottingham. The injured party, whose last name is withheld for his safety, intervened in an altercation between two pedestrians and another delivery rider. Ibraheem witnessed one of the pedestrians kicking his colleague’s moped. Concerned for the driver’s safety, who was physically struck, Ibraheem tried to diffuse the situation and advised the other driver to leave the area. Once he did so, the pedestrians began directing racist abuse towards Ibraheem, calling him a “dirty brown bastard” and telling him to “go back to his country” before police attended the scene.

    Ibraheem says: “It’s hard to express how it feels being told to go back to your country in the very city where you were born and bred. The other driver was hit and I was spat at for trying to help him. Delivery riders are being targeted and intimidated a lot, we’re in danger every day we go to work. I’ve got no entitlement to sick pay or holiday pay, so I’m going back out in the streets to work tonight because I can’t afford to stay home. I got no support from Deliveroo, only other drivers and the IWGB. Deliveroo just suggested I work outside my own city, somewhere I don’t know, which could be even more dangerous. We deserve better than that.”

    Alex Marshall, courier and IWGB Couriers & Logistics Branch Chair, says: "We were appalled to learn of the murder of Takieddine Boudhane. His loved ones are in our thoughts and we send solidarity to everyone affected by his death, which has shaken the courier community. To hear just days later that one of our members in Nottingham has been physically assaulted and subjected to racist abuse at work has been devastating. Delivery workers are putting their lives on the line for poverty pay and BAME workers are among those most at risk.

    The IWGB has seen a worrying rise in reports like this and in the event of an accident or assault at work, companies take no accountability. That is the gig economy culture. If these worker’s rights were respected by the companies they work for the picture would look very different and perhaps lives would be saved.”

    Notes to Editors

    The IWGB is the leading union for so-called “gig economy” workers. In November 2018 it organised the first UK nation-wide strike of Uber drivers, when drivers in London, Birmingham and Nottingham turned off their app in protest to unfair deactivations and low pay.

    In December 2018, the IWGB has defeated Uber at the Court of Appeal, in a landmark decision over the employment rights of its drivers. The Court of Appeal upheld the previous decisions by the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal, which ruled that Uber had unlawfully classified Uber drivers as independent contractors rather than workers, denying them basic rights such as a guaranteed minimum wage and holiday pay. However, the ruling only applies to Uber minicab drivers, not UberEats delivery workers.

    The IWGB has also taken legal action against other gig economy companies such as Deliveroo, CitySprint and TDL. These include worker recognition cases and claims for backdated holiday pay worth over £1 million.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/nhs-gig-economy-couriers-blood-transfusions-union-recognition-the-doc
    https://iwgb.org.uk/post/5d09f070e04c2/nhs-medical-couriers-landmark-

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    #Großbritannien #Nottingham #Rassismus #Arbeit #Gigworking #disruption #Kriminalität