Deliveroo rider sleeping rough sparks debate about ‘working homeless’

At first glance, it doesn’t look like much — but one detail in this photo of a tent has exposed the sad reality of “the new working homeless”.

A photograph of a Deliveroo worker sleeping rough on a city street has exposed the sad reality of “the new working homeless”.

The picture was taken yesterday by Lawrence Hemmings, a Green Party councillor from Dublin, Ireland, as he was on his way to work in the suburb of Donaghmede.

It shows a tent set up on a city street with a locked bicycle nearby — and a Deliveroo bag in the entrance.

Cr Hemmings shared the picture to Twitter, and it soon went viral.

“Bicycle locked. Deliveroo bag ready for the day’s work. The new working homeless. Government is failing to deliver public and affordable housing and failing to control rents. #homelessindublin” he posted.

It sparked a flurry of responses from social media users who criticised the Government’s lack of support for residents who are doing it tough and branded the situation “heartbreaking” and “so wrong”.

“Just when you think you’ve seen it all! Shameful,” one Twitter user wrote.

“The gig economy in one sad and sorry image,” another posted, while another added: “Everyone deserves the safety of a roof over their head”.

Bicycle locked. Deliveroo bag ready for the day's work. The new working homeless.

Government is failing to deliver public and affordable housing and failing to control rents.#homelessindublin pic.twitter.com/t9LX5ZcWY0

— Cllr Lawrence Hemmings (@Ireland_Greener) August 28, 2019

Many also hit out at Deliveroo’s decision to class its delivery workers as contractors instead of employees, meaning they miss out on many benefits usually afforded to staff.

Seeing the Deliveroo bag in the tent beside the bike on the path in the city centre this morning was truly shocking.

But there is another angle: the person with the Deliveroo bag is not an employee, gets no sick pay, no bike for work or bike repair.

See more from @unapower👇 https://t.co/poBtrGpkzt

— Cllr Lawrence Hemmings (@Ireland_Greener) August 28, 2019

It was an issue touched upon by Cr Hemmings in a follow-up tweet soon after.

“Seeing the Deliveroo bag in the tent beside the bike on the path in the city centre this morning was truly shocking. But there is another angle: The person with the Deliveroo bag is not an employee, gets no sick pay, no bike for work or bike repair,” he posted.

He also shared another tweet by fellow councillor Una Power that included a photo of several news headlines about troubling Deliveroo working conditions.

In an interview with the Irish Mirror, Cr Hemmings said there was a growing crisis of people facing homelessness due in part to “sky-high rents” despite having some form of employment.

“It was clearly someone who is homeless trying to work in precarious self employment, and attempting to have some shelter, have a sleep, not having somewhere better to stay somewhere other than with their bike locked next to their tent. It’s an absolutely desperate situation,” he told the publication.

The photo apparently shows a Deliveroo worker sleeping rough. Picture: Twitter/@Ireland_Greener

“I was outraged, just outraged, there’s a homelessness crisis that’s being going on here for a long time, but this seemed different.

“We had stories over the weekend of around 500 people queuing for food bank donations, and a lot of them employed, that’s a stark visual of the reality people are living in.”

The tweet comes just days after the Transport Workers Union revealed it was launching action against Deliveroo in Australia over the alleged underpayment of delivery rider Jeremy Rhind, who claims he was paid around $10.50 an hour, which is about $9 below the minimum hourly rate in Australia.

The union won the first case in Australia against a gig economy company last year with a victory over Foodora, which has since exited Australia.

“This rider faced what thousands of food delivery riders endure every day: getting ripped off their wages. We don’t accept this and we will fight it,” said TWU national secretary Michael Kaine.

“Just because a worker is engaged via an app doesn’t mean they should be forced to work below minimum rates.

“No amount of talk about flexibility can dress this up as anything but exploitation. Riders have the right to be paid a fair rate, and that is what we will be fighting for.”

A Deliveroo spokeswoman told news.com.au the company offered “well-paid, flexible work to more than 8000 riders across Australia who are all independent contractors”.

“This enables riders to choose when, where and whether to work, with the flexibility and freedom riders repeatedly tell us they want,” the spokeswoman said.

“On average, Deliveroo riders in Australia work 15 hours a week, earning over $22 per hour on average, fitting riding around study, hobbies, caring responsibilities or other work. We will always defend riders’ ability to choose to work this way.

“If riders were employees the flexibility they enjoy today would be removed and they would have to work exclusively for Deliveroo in fixed shift patterns, which is not the way our working riders tell us they want.”