Although food delivery riders face violence, danger and theft while working in Edinburgh, a workers’ rights group has offered help.
Workers’ Observatory polled a group of delivery riders about their experiences over a four month period.
Around 30 said they had been assaulted on the job, while about 30 others said they had been involved in accidents, and more than 20 said they had been stolen from – in many cases having their bikes taken.
The Workers’ Observatory is a group of workers, academics and trade unionists who try and bring attention to issues facing gig economy workers.
It regards the first step towards tackling the issue as building a support hub for riders in the city centre, where the majority of incidents involving delivery riders seem to take place.
This would be somewhere where riders could rest, have shelter, charge their bikes and phones and have access to toilets.
Workers’ Observatory
Dr Cailean Gallagher, a lecturer at St Andrews University and director of the Workers’ Observatory, said: “A key goal of this is to get broad support for this hub to be built, it’s the number one thing that’s going to help riders.
“The whole strategy is to put data behind the experiences of working people, making it easier for people to understand and work with.”
Mapping by Edinburgh University lecturer and data scientist, Marion Lieutand, showed that most incidents happened in the city centre rather than outlying areas.
The group says this means a hub would be best sited there, in order to help more riders.
The data also collected riders’ experiences. One said they were shoved off their bike by an angry pedestrian at the bottom of Leith Walk.
Another, in Stockbridge, said there was an “individual making a video of me and saying “go back from where you came from”.
The figures were raised by Cllr Lezley Marion Cameron at a police update to the city’s Culture Committee last month.
In response, Chief Superintendent, David Robertson, said: “We do see far too many instances of gig workers being the victim of criminality when they’re out and about working hard.”
By Joseph Sullivan Local Democracy Reporter
