With takeaway delivery company Deliveroo due to list on the stock exchange, there have been reports that some investors are not intending to buy Deliveroo shares due to concerns over workers' rights. Professor Chris Warhurst of the Warwick Institute for Employment Research comments:

"As Deliveroo gears up for its flotation on the London stock market, the company is facing a backlash over its business model from some potential investors.

"That model, based on subcontracting out its work, is not new, but has been amplified by the use of new digital technologies to use what it insists are self-employed workers at a time when there are real question marks over workers’ rights and companies’ responsibilities in the gig economy.

"Investors’ perceptions of the company seem to be influenced by whether, in the future, there might be consumer boycotts of the company or that profits might evaporate under compensation claims from workers. The task for Deliveroo is to get on the right side of public opinion and to keep on the right side of the law as that law is emerging now in the UK."

25 March 2021

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Peter Thorley
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Email: peter.thorley@warwick.ac.uk

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