Food delivery firms should tell the Government who their riders and drivers are, amid fears of “rampant” visa abuse, a Conservative MP has said.
Nick Timothy accused food delivery companies of a “dereliction of duty”, when they let self-employed riders use “substitute” couriers.
Deliveroo and Uber Eats are among the firms that have self-employed couriers who can get others to deliver on their behalf, but the riders are responsible for checking their substitutes are aged over 18 and legally allowed to work in the UK.
Mr Timothy tabled an amendment to the Government’s Employment Rights Bill, which would make food, drink and postal delivery bosses supply the Government with details of their riders every year.
If it is adopted, Mr Timothy’s proposal would also apply to taxi-style companies with more than 250 employees.
The MP for West Suffolk said his amendment aimed to tackle the “wrongful use of substitution clauses by gig economy workers”.
He told the Commons: “This will help ensure employment rights are upheld and pay is not suppressed through illegitimate competition, but it will also support the enforcement of right to work checks.
“Unlawful employment of migrants with no right to work here is not good for taxpayers, British workers, or migrants who follow the rules, and yet substitution clauses allow what have become known as ‘Deliveroo visas’ – industrial-scale abuse of our immigration and labour laws.”
Mr Timothy criticised “rampant labour market and visa abuse and fraud committed by contractors related to these companies”, adding: “It is a dereliction of duty to pass the responsibility of compliance with criminal and right to work checks onto these workers.
“But these companies clearly have an interest in maintaining a status quo where undocumented migrants are taking the lowest fees in the delivery apps.”
He told MPs that “companies are privatising profits and socialising the cost” and referred to a Home Office illegal working crackdown in April 2023, when 60 moped delivery drivers were arrested in London and southern England.
Deliveroo and Uber Eats have been contacted for comment.
