In 2020, Just Eat announced it would be leaving the gig economy model behind by giving its couriers hourly pay and benefits under what is called its “Scoober” model. But riders would not receive these benefits from the platform directly: Just Eat turned to Randstad, a Dutch staffing agency, to contract 6,000 of its riders and drivers working across six UK cities, and it is using another staffing agency called Stuart to provide couriers in at least two more. On-demand grocery delivery service Gorillas has also been using third-party agencies, including a startup called Ryde, to supply extra workers during peak times.
Riders are stuck between the two companies when he needs to complain about problems at work, “for instance incorrect pay or not getting hours through. Just Eat would refer you to Randstad, Randstad would refer you back to Just Eat.”
Just Eat’s Randstad partnership is an attempt to test a new model for the gig economy in the UK. An entire sub-industry of staffing agencies is taking hold in Europe. This industry offshoot is becoming a test-bed, as staffing agencies rush to find ways to profit from delivery platforms, which have raised around $14 billion in funding since the start of the pandemic but are not necessarily providing better work conditions, according to the gig workers who work for them.
"Hiring a lot of people in so many different markets is difficult for us, and therefore parties like Randstad help us set those contracts up and get us those people,” Just Eat CEO Jitse Groen said.
Outsourcing staff is not a new practice for Just Eat. In 2017, three years before it announced plans to give couriers more benefits, it had struck a deal with Stuart, which still allows riders to be paid per drop, unlike those working for Randstad.
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