exploited

LegacyUser

So, the story goes I'm currently self employed. That's my status. 8 months ago my business fell apart due to my product being overtaken by a local city council thus negating my small business. I stayed self employed as was offered a pizza delivery job at night. It was either take the delivery job or try to haggle my way in to the social welfare office. The pay is atrocious,On my original contract with them I get 5 euro an hour and 1:50 euro per delivery. This is when the cost of petrol was around 1 euro and 28 cents. I pay my own petrol costs and use my own car.

2 and a half months ago the owner of the pizza franchise cut the other drivers and myself's pay to 5 euro an hour and 1:30 per delivery. Petrol has gone up to 1:50 per litre and when we work it out we are paying more for our petrol than what is coming in from the employer, effectively bringing our wage down to about 4:70 euro an hour.

This means the employer has contractors working for half the minimum wage. The only reason he has gotten away with this is the fact that the other drivers are claiming social welfare and rent allowance and work there just for the extra cash. For me I'm working 5 nights a week and coming out with about 150/160 euro a week which would include the odd tip from customers. Minus my petrol costs of course. With this 150 odd euro a week I'm getting I'm left with 10 euro for food. The rest is out before it arrives in.

The social welfare have told me I can't get welfare for at least 6 months after shutting down my business so feel like I've no choice but to continue in this role while applying for a normal regular job.

At this stage I feel the employer is taking the mick. It is a very large well branded pizza franchise. We have to wear a uniform, are told what hours we work and have to deliver the pizzas fast otherwise you stand to lose the contract. This puts pressure on you to go over the speed limit.

We also are told that we have to work instore in what they call cross-training. This includes working the ovens, ( ie putting the pizza in a box, cutting it and getting it ready for delivery) and other duties that arise in the store like answering phonecalls and serving customers. This imo takes jobs and hours away from the instore staff as they dont need to put too many staff on if the drivers are doing their work for them.

What do I do? the feeling of exploitation from the franchise owner is sickening. When the cuts and cross-training came in I organised a protest and found to my dismay after all the drivers agreeing to stage a protest they all backed out of it due to the fear of being caught by social welfare of doing fraud.

The only answer I can think of to change the work environment to being more in-line with work norms is to report the shop to some public body. The losers will generally be the drivers, as they will get caught working on the side. The change that could come is the owner having to employ drivers on a proper contract and take them on as employees and pay employer prsi and rates etc and also give a decent wage for your work done.

What would you do? I know the consensus will be no sympathy for the drivers working on the side, but when they are your colleagues it is hard to make a decision like this.

edellc

understandingly its hard for you to report your work colleagues however unless you do then standards in your working environment will not change......look at it this way these workers are exploiting and defrauding our social welfare system they are getting above and beyond what they are entitled to while those in genuine need and those who are honest struggle like your good self is this fair me thinks not.....
employers will continue to exploit if employees let them stand up and be counted and report your employer and if the fall out is a better working environment with fair remuneration and making honest men of the pizza delivery trade then so be it

murphym7

You can report away - nothing will change, as was said, you and the other drivers are self employed. You could agree a rate of 50 cents an hour and the owner is still doing nothing wrong.

If you do report this situation to someone, all you are doing is getting the other drivers caught for Dole fraud, not a bad thing, because they should not be doing what they are doing.

Reporting this owner will do nothing for your situation, it will not force him to hire anybody on proper contracts - once you get all the drivers caught, there will be 10 more in the que to take their place. This guy is not your employer - he is your client. You don't have any rights here - other than health and safety within the premises.

I would use your energy looking after your own situation, this is a battle you can not win.

shoegirl

I don't understand why welfare are telling you that it would be 6 months to get welfare because you are self employed? Is that the length of time they expect to assess your case or are they pulling a fast one on you? If the reason is assessment time then you can claim SWA in the meantime.

Sounds like the business is not making ends meet so TBO I'd shut down shop.