Uber Eats delivery men in Nantes, in March 2021 (illustration). – Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS
“Hurry up slave”. Friday May 14, around 8 p.m., while he is in the middle of an Uber Eats delivery tour in Laval (Mayenne), Yaya remains speechless in the face of this message sent by a customer awaiting her KFC order. “Morally injured”, the 34-year-old delivery man, originally from Guinea-Conakry, lodged a complaint the next day at the Laval police station for “non-public insult because of the origin”, as reported
our colleagues from France Bleu Mayenne.
With 98% satisfaction on his 2,796 orders delivered in seven months, Yaya had never had a problem with Uber Eats customers, or been confronted with racism since his arrival in France, in 2009. Faced with such a message – accompanied by ‘an “I’ll give you a dime, you deserve that” visible on the screenshot shown by the delivery man -, Yaya refused to deliver the customer’s order: “I couldn’t deliver it to her. […] because these insults are unbearable. Once there, we can fight ”. However, he contacted Uber Eats, which canceled the order immediately.
“Uber Eats cannot tolerate any discrimination against delivery people, restaurants and customers”
Since then, the company has said in a statement that it will do what is necessary to suspend the client’s account, and specified that it ” [coopérait] also with the competent police forces when information sharing is required ”.
“Uber Eats cannot tolerate any discrimination against delivery people, restaurants and customers, whether based on their origin, religion, disability, gender orientation or gender identity, marital status, age or any other factor of discrimination, ”she further asserted.
A week after the fact, Yaya remains in shock: “I can’t sleep properly, I imagine all the time [les mots de la cliente] “.