Deal struck over minimum wage for delivery riders in France

French delivery riders have received a huge boost after a deal was agreed to give them a minimum hourly wage of €11.75.

The agreement was struck between food delivery platforms - such as Uber Eats and Deliveroo - and the Fédération Nationale des Auto Entrepreneurs (FNAE), which represented the delivery workers.

Three agreements were signed on Thursday (April 20) over the implementation of an hourly wage, deactivation of a rider’s work account and improved social dialogue between workers and employers.

The agreements will come as a relief to delivery riders, working under precarious conditions in the ‘gig economy’, an outlier in a country known for strong social protection of workers. It will also spark hope for other workers in the sector.

France’s labour minister, Olivier Dussopt, welcomed the move.

“These first agreements… constitute a real step forward in strengthening the rights of delivery workers,” he tweeted after the announcement.

‘20% of drivers below wage threshold threshold’

Preliminary agreements between the two sides had already been in place in January over a minimum payment per journey of €7.65 but yesterday’s agreement takes workers’ rights one step further.

While the previous deal benefited riders in the largest cities during peak hours, the current one provides a consistent income, even during quieter periods.

“It's an immediate gain for delivery drivers, at least 20% of whom are below this threshold," said Grégoire Leclercq, president of the FNAE who signed the deal.

The €11.75 is higher than France’s minimum hourly salary for a worker on a 35-hour week contract (€11.07 before deductions), but many riders work a more flexible schedule in response to peaks and troughs in demand.

The second agreement signed also ended the unilateral power of the delivery services to terminate a worker’s account.

It also provides drivers with the ability to report problems with a delivery (previously only the service providers and customers could flag incidents) as well as be informed of any complaints initiated by customers.

In the case of account deactivation, a driver will be able to “defend [themselves] and contest the reasons" for the disconnection, the FNAE said.

The decision to deactivate an account will have to be taken "by a physical person and not an algorithm" and will not be able to occur "without prior notice," the union added in their report.

Read more: Undeclared self-employment earnings cost France €7billion a year

‘Three unprecedented agreements’

The Association des Plateformes d'Indépendants - which includes Deliveroo, UberEats and Stuart in its delivery committee – highlighted the “unprecedented agreements" in a statement, a first of their kind in France.

The third and final agreement focuses on “strengthening the resources of representatives and the quality of social dialogue," they added.

"These agreements… will therefore be applicable to all delivery platforms in the delivery sector," the group concluded.

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