A trade union yesterday called for Deliveroo’s UK riders to strike when the meal delivery service floats on the stock market next month, saying the action would highlight dissatisfaction with the company’s business model and approach to workers’ rights.
Deliveroo, whose turquoise-uniformed couriers delivering chicken kormas and hot pizzas are a common sight in many British suburbs, is set for Britain’s biggest stock market debut in nearly a decade, after setting a share price range that values it at up to US$12 billion.
Some investment firms have said they will not participate in the initial public offering (IPO).
Photo: Reuters
Insurer Aviva PLC for instance highlighted a lack of rights for riders as an investment risk as the company might be forced to change its business model.
Investor demand had continued to build since its road show began on Monday last week, Deliveroo said, adding that the views of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), which called for the strike, did not represent the majority of riders.
The union previously lost a legal challenge to Deliveroo in 2018. The case sought to secure rights such as the UK minimum wage for riders, but the court ruled that riders were self-employed.
“Investing in Deliveroo means associating yourself with the exploitative and unstable business model,” IWGB president Alex Marshall said in a statement, adding that the strike was planned for Wednesday next week, to coincide with the IPO.
The rights of people who work in the so-called “gig economy” have been an increasing focus in Britain. Ride-hailing app Uber gave its workers more entitlements earlier this month after losing a UK Supreme Court case.
Job satisfaction levels among its 50,000 self-employed riders in Britain was at an all-time high, and that the flexibility they had was a big attraction, Deliveroo said.
“Thousands apply to work with us every week, reflecting the strong demand for our on-demand model,” a company spokeswoman said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained