DUBAI (Middle East Eye) – Food-delivery workers in Dubai has staged a mass walk out, calling for better pay and working conditions in the second such instance of industrial action in the country this month.
The drivers for Talabat, the Middle East unit of Delivery Hero, began refusing to make deliveries on Monday evening in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates’ financial center.
A group of Talabat drivers told Reuters in the early hours of Tuesday morning outside a restaurant in the emirate that they had been encouraged to take action to demand a better deal by the strike earlier this month by delivery workers at Deliveroo.
That strike, which massively disrupted Deliveroo’s services over a weekend, saw the British food delivery company meet driver demands not to proceed with plans to cut pay and extend shift hours.
Independent trade unions, public protests and industrial action are all banned in the UAE.
The Talabat drivers said they were calling for an equivalent of a $0.54 increase in payments to $2.59 per order to help with higher fuel costs, which have risen more than 30 percent this year in the UAE.
“If Deliveroo gives this price... why are we not getting?” a Pakistani Talabat driver told Reuters, requesting anonymity over fears of reprisals from the company and authorities.
Deliveroo drivers in Dubai earn about $2.79 per delivery.
Talabat also operates in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq.
A Talabat spokesperson said its delivery drivers on average were earning 3,500 dirhams ($953) a month. The number of hours worked for that was not disclosed.
Talabat drivers whom Reuters spoke to said that after paying for petrol they were earning 2,500 dirhams ($681) a month by working 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week.