Delivery drivers working mainly for Uber Eats are called for a national strike on Saturday and Sunday to protest against a new remuneration system launched at the beginning of October by the meal delivery platform and which is less favorable to them according to the unions. The call for a strike was launched by Union-Indépendants, the CGT Transports federation and SUD Commerces. Gatherings of striking delivery workers are expected, among others, in Paris, Bordeaux, Nice, Strasbourg, Lyon, Toulouse, Marseille and Armentières, in the north of France.
Protest movements by Uber Eats couriers had already punctuated the month of November. Implemented on October 10, the new pricing “may cause certain journeys to vary upwards and others downwards, (but it) is not intended to reduce the average remuneration per journey”, assures Uber Eats which even notes “ a slight increase in average revenue per trip of 1.4%” in the pilot cities (Avignon, Lille and Rouen). This new pricing “ensures fairer remuneration for delivery people”, according to the company which currently has 65,000 in France for the platform.
A minimum hourly income revised upwards?
Fabian Tosolini, national delegate of Union-Indépendants, assures for his part that “the new pricing results in a reduction in remuneration for a large number of delivery people”. A meeting on November 21 with Uber Eats, leader in the sector, did not resolve the situation, the proposals having been deemed “insufficient” by the unions who prefer that the price of the races be the subject of a dialogue between the delivery people and the platform, and not that it is exclusively decided by it.
Questioned by AFP, Uber Eats reiterated on Friday that it had “heard the concerns about the new pricing expressed by certain delivery drivers” and wanted to respond to them by increasing “the minimum hourly income guarantee, from 11.75 euros to 14 euros “. The National Federation of Auto-Entrepreneurs (FNAE) indicated in mid-November that it “does not support the mobilization”, believing that the new pricing “should make it possible to maintain or even increase the income of the majority of delivery people”.