Ethics in the digital workplace
Digitisation and automation technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), can affect working conditions in a variety of ways and their use in the workplace raises a host of new ethical concerns.
Just Eat (UK), the UK subsidiary of the global food delivery platform, has announced that it will create 1,000 new courier jobs across the country, starting in central London and Birmingham.
The newly created jobs include full-time, part-time and zero-hours roles. The company is also introducing a new model of employment, offering the newly recruited couriers fixed hourly wages, holiday and sick pay, paid parental leave and pension contributions. However, couriers will be employed by the Randstad agency, rather than by Just Eat directly.
A representative of the GMB trade union welcomed the introduction of the new employment model and called on other gig economy platforms to “respect and protect their workers.”
Just Eat operates in the UK, Denmark, France, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Spain and Switzerland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In the UK it currently employs 1,500 people.
Eurofound (2020), Just Eat UK, Business expansion in United Kingdom, factsheet number 102902, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/102902.