Migrant Deliveries....

revisesociology in #takeaways • 2 days ago

Four million Britons now have takeaway food delivered at least once a week. It would appear that your typical consumer is happy to pay a little extra for the convenience of staying parked firmly on one's arse.

There is no available data on how many arguments arise over who gets their lardy arse off the sofa to bother to open the door, but clearly takeaway deliveries are booming.

Migrant delivery....

Some of the people delivering this takeaway food to lardy arses are 'irregular migrants', or asylum seekers who are stuck waiting for their claims to be processed and are disbarred from working and have no recourse to public funds.

However, there is a loophole, albeit not contractually allowed: most of them work by "renting" UK citizens' accounts on food delivery apps, typically via Facebook groups. This subcontracting is a violation of app terms of service and allows employers to avoid legal requirements like minimum wage or insurance.

The platforms – Uber Eats, Just Eat, Deliveroo – claim they are cracking down on illicit logins and bringing in ID checks and right-to-work checks. But enforcement is inconsistent, and the incentive to turn a blind eye is strong. This, after all, is a model that relies on an enormous army of low-cost, hyper-flexible labour.

NB the smuggling gangs are keen to exploit this fact: you can sell Britain to potential small-boaters with the line that 'all you need is a bike, and you can earn easy money'.

This proliferation of an unofficial gig economy work via food apps has given birth to a huge, untaxed black economy. Billions of pounds are lost each year in undocumented tax revenue.

This is a classic case of public policy failing to catch up with technological innovation.

A potential solution...?

A national ID scheme could both help prove worker eligibility and shut off access to illegal subletting of accounts.

And in the case of the fast food delivery industry specifically maybe clamping down on a few civil liberties is worth it to save the exploitation of migrant workers?

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#foodie #cent #leo #proofofbrain #dave #uk #neoxian #oneup

2 days ago in #takeaways by revisesociology

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steevc 2 days ago

This food delivery industry has really boomed and the guys on bikes can be a hazard. Certain jobs will attract 'informal' workers and that needs to be regulated. I don't mind paying tax, but everyone else needs to.

The ID card is a different issue and Brits will resist it. We need to be able to prove identity, but should not be forced to show it all the time and be tracked.

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slobberchops 2 days ago

When I go in Mc's these days, the order board is full of these bloody deliveries, and Mc's can no longer be called fast food in the literal sense. I have almost walked out due to the waiting times..

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xrayman 2 days ago

Didn't realized that side of the issue. I don't usually eat at McDonnalds, and even in "normal" slow food restaurants, they have to create a specific "waiting area" for this deliveries app services, avoiding the delay of the "rest of the normal orders"

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slobberchops 2 days ago

Not here, KFC is just as bad. It never used to be like this.

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videoaddiction 2 days ago

Establishing a national ID program could really help in confirming whether workers are eligible and might also reduce the exploitation that often comes with these delivery systems.

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xrayman 2 days ago

In Portugal, there was a specific moment when this type of service grew astronomically. And this happened all over the so-called developed world, around March 2020. At that time, couriers were seen as real heroes, doing a fundamental job, avoiding huge losses of time for people who couldn't spend hours outside supermarkets and hypermarkets just to get in, to comply with the law.

But a lot of time has passed, and as you say, convenience is here to stay. It's much easier to stay at home and wait for someone to deliver the meal you've just left the store, than to prepare a meal yourself for a fraction of the price, and absolutely more nutritious.

Large companies such as MacDonalds, among others, make a lot more money from this type of market, as sales end up increasing by avoiding occupying their restaurants, or cars standing in front of their drive-through.

But everything would be fine with this model if the fee paid by the commodities traders didn't go mostly to the distribution platform, and little to the courier.

In Portugal, and even in areas further away from the city center, such as the suburbs where I live, between 9am and 11pm there are a large number of motorcycles, electric bikes or even normal bikes driving around with someone carrying a yellow square backpack.

The market exploits this type of labor. I'd venture to say that there probably isn't a Portuguese person who has Portuguese great-grandparents who want to do this kind of work.

It scares me to see a society that doesn't mind polluting and punishing a fringe in order to obtain everything that comfort demands.

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felixxx 2 days ago

A national ID scheme could both help prove worker eligibility and shut off access to illegal subletting of accounts.

Or maybe stopping the illegal immigration would also fix this problem.

And in the case of the fast food delivery industry specifically maybe clamping down on a few civil liberties is worth it to save the exploitation of migrant workers?

'Ausweis, bitte!'

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shainemata yesterday

It's a two-way exploit. The workers are exploiting a weakness in the system.

In the US, we have somewhat of a similar problem. Individual states can license noncitizens for driving. This acts as a form of identification, which somewhat legitimizes their status. The federal government has required states to issue "Real ID", which also checks for citizenship. Those who are get a gold star on their license. Real ID is also needed to board domestic flights.

The closest we have to a national ID is a passport, which you can get as the traditional book passport and/or a passport card. The passport card is useful for crossing back to the US from Canada and Mexico, and for boarding domestic flights. But it's also accepted as ID for other purposes. I generally use the card as it does not have my home address like the driving license does. And the passport card is only issued to citizens. I got both passports with one application.

The passport card is mostly useful for the border crossings mentioned and for sea crossings to the Caribbean and Bermuda. For other travel, the traditional passport book is necessary.

Perhaps the UK would save setting up an entire infrastructure on setting up for a national ID by offering a passport card. This way citizens would only have to apply for one or both types at the same time. They've already done the work of verifying citizenship.

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