Summary

In this review we spotlight cases of automated robo-firings at Just Eat. We have noticed a marked growth in worker reports of such dismissals made to the App Drivers & Couriers Union (ADCU). In these and many other cases, workers are increasingly turning to trade unions to collectively challenge the asymmetrical power of platform employers who act with impunity to violate even the most basic employment and data protection rights of their workers.

Part of the language of employment misclassification is to refer to such dismissals instead as ‘deactivations’. A significant subset of these dismissals involve allegations of fraudulent behaviour in relation to delayed order collections at restaurants. We find dismissals under such circumstances especially concerning due to the use of flawed automated decision-making in management mechanisms...

All of these dismissals originate from opaque black box technologies which detect patterns in workers' personal data, and consistently fail to reflect the day to day reality of working in this precarious industry. We examine some of these cases to provide an up-to-date snapshot of the poor working conditions for Just Eat couriers...

While platform companies may deem themselves at the cutting edge of innovation, we find that poor technology and business process design at Just Eat has led to unnecessary complications for workers on the job and to incorrect fraud detection analysis with profound consequences. Through this research we aim to document the ways in which this workforce is continually exploited under abysmal working conditions, with chronic low pay and algorithmic control systems operated at scale by app technology...