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      New EU gig economy laws saved from oblivion by Belgian compromise

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Monday, 11 March - 17:45


    Directive aims to give taxi and delivery drivers such as those working for Uber and Deliveroo rights similar to employees

    New laws designed to improve the rights of gig economy workers in the EU contracted to companies such as Uber have been saved from oblivion after they won the majority backing of member states.

    The legislation had been blocked by a group of countries last month, with France saying it could not support the text on the table and Germany abstaining.

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      Wendy’s will experiment with dynamic surge pricing for food in 2025

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 27 February - 21:37 · 1 minute

    A view of a Wendy's store on August 9, 2023 in Nanuet, New York.

    Enlarge / A view of a Wendy's store on August 9, 2023 in Nanuet, New York. (credit: Getty Images )

    American fast food chain Wendy's is planning to test dynamic pricing and AI menu features in 2025, reports Nation's Restaurant News and Food & Wine . This means that prices for food items will automatically change throughout the day depending on demand, similar to "surge pricing" in rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft. The initiative was disclosed by Kirk Tanner, the CEO and president of Wendy's, in a recent discussion with analysts.

    According to Tanner, Wendy's plans to invest approximately $20 million to install digital menu boards capable of displaying these real-time variable prices across all of its company-operated locations in the United States. An additional $10 million is earmarked over two years to enhance Wendy's global system, which aims to improve order accuracy and upsell other menu items.

    In conversation with Food & Wine, a spokesperson for Wendy's confirmed the company's commitment to this pricing strategy, describing it as part of a broader effort to grow its digital business. "Beginning as early as 2025, we will begin testing a variety of enhanced features on these digital menuboards like dynamic pricing, different offerings in certain parts of the day, AI-enabled menu changes and suggestive selling based on factors such as weather," they said. "Dynamic pricing can allow Wendy's to be competitive and flexible with pricing, motivate customers to visit and provide them with the food they love at a great value. We will test a number of features that we think will provide an enhanced customer and crew experience."

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      Royal Mail sued by delivery drivers in ‘Uber-style’ gig economy legal case

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Sunday, 25 February - 10:00

    Parcelforce couriers have gone to court for the right to be classed as workers rather than self-employed owner drivers

    Royal Mail is being sued for classifying delivery drivers as self-employed, enabling it to avoid paying sick pay and the minimum wage, in a case that mirrors a landmark gig economy legal ruling against Uber .

    The Royal Mail drivers allege that the practice means Parcelforce – the company’s parcel delivery subsidiary – can also make them pay hundreds of pounds in fines when they call in sick .

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      When your food comes via a delivery app, the exploitation is baked right in | Nesrine Malik

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Monday, 19 February - 06:00

    Delivery services have changed the way we live, but they are only viable if someone is underpaid. No wonder riders went on strike

    The working life of a delivery app rider is dictated by the tyranny of time. Time between deliveries, the time it takes to make a delivery, the time that a rider needs to rest, go to the bathroom, eat.

    Ulisses Cioffi is a rider who is part of a group that organised last week’s Valentine’s Day strike . There are only a certain amount of deliveries that he can make safely in an hour, he tells me, a maximum of three. For those three, he will make just under £12 an hour. Sometimes, he says, “we cannot even make that”. Every obstacle on the way is a drag on his hourly income. Roadworks, busy restaurants that take longer to prepare deliveries, even the wait on the doorstep. “You’re not going to believe it, but there are a lot of people who order food then go for a shower.”

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      I deliver food to your door, but not this Valentine’s Day. Here’s why we are on strike in the UK | Anonymous food courier

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 14 February - 10:00

    Food delivery drivers work long hours in gruelling conditions for very little pay from firms such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats. We are walking out because we are desperate

    Today, on Valentine’s Day, delivery riders working for platforms such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats will be on strike , demanding higher wages. It will probably be the largest platform worker strike ever seen in the UK. I’m one of the organisers.

    I live in south London. I spend most of the day on the road. I ride 80 miles a day on my moped over the course of nine to 10 hours, and usually make less than the minimum wage after costs. Because I’m self-employed, I have no guaranteed basic pay. Instead, I get variable fees for each delivery based on distance and other factors.

    The author is a food courier in south London and an organiser with Delivery Job UK. As told to Callum Cant

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      Thousands of UK Deliveroo and Uber Eats drivers to strike on Valentine’s Day

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Monday, 12 February - 08:13


    Takeaway delivery riders say employment status has left many struggling to earn national living wage

    Delivery drivers for food-ordering platforms including Deliveroo and Uber Eats are staging a Valentine’s Day strike to demand better pay and conditions.

    The stoppage on Wednesday is being organised by a grassroots group, Delivery Job UK, many of whose members are Brazilian. It claims to have more than 3,000 supporters in London and several other cities.

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      Landmark moment as Uber unveils first annual profit as limited company

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 7 February - 18:28

    US taxi app firm turns $1.8bn loss into $1.1bn profit after years of spending billions of investors’ cash to expand

    Uber has reported its first ever annual operating profit as a limited company, in a landmark moment for a business that spent billions of dollars of investors’ money in an aggressive and often controversial expansion around the world.

    The US taxi app company said it made $1.1bn (£870m) in 2023, compared with a loss of $1.8bn the year before.

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      J’ai pris un taxi autonome sans personne à l’intérieur et j’ai flippé

      news.movim.eu / Numerama · Monday, 15 January - 06:33

    À San Francisco, Waymo propose un service de taxis autonomes accessible de tous les habitants. Ce concurrent d'Uber ou de Lyft envoie des véhicules électriques sans personne à l'intérieur, avec un volant qui tourne tout seul. Le passager n'a qu'un écran de contrôle à l'arrière pour lui demander de s'arrêter ou de modifier son itinéraire. L'expérience est vraiment déconcertante.

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      Would Luddites find the gig economy familiar?

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Saturday, 13 January - 11:00 · 1 minute

    Woman about to swing a hammer at a laptop.

    Enlarge (credit: Matthieu Spohn )

    The term Luddite is usually used as an insult. It suggests someone who is backward-looking, averse to progress, afraid of new technology, and frankly, not that bright. But Brian Merchant claims that that is not who the Luddites were at all. They were organized, articulate in their demands, very much understood how factory owners were using machinery to supplant them, and highly targeted in their destruction of that machinery.

    Their pitiable reputation is the result of a deliberate smear campaign by elites in their own time who (successfully, as it turned out) tried to discredit their coherent and justified movement. In his book Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech , Merchant memorializes the Luddites not as the hapless dolts with their heads in the sand that they’ve become synonymous with, but rather as the first labor organizers. Longing for the halcyon days of yore when we were more in touch with nature isn’t Luddism, Merchant writes; that’s pastoralism—totally different thing.

    OG Luddites

    Weavers used to work at home, using hand-powered looms (i.e., machines). The whole family pitched in to make cloth; they worked on their own schedules and spent their leisure time and meals together. Master weavers apprenticed for seven years to learn their trade. It worked this way in the north of England for hundreds of years.

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