(Alliance News) -Â The Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain said hundreds of Deliveroo workers will strike on Wednesday over pay and "basic workers' rights".
Riders from the union will take industrial action against the food delivery platform Wednesday to coincide the London initial public offering of Deliveroo Holdings PLC, whose shares start trading unconditionally on Wednesday.
"Riders are demanding a living wage, safety protections and basic workers' rights," IWGB said.
Socially distanced protests are being organised in London, York, Sheffield, Reading, Wolverhampton.
Alex Marshall, president of IWGB and a former bicycle courier, said: "Deliveroo presents a false choice between flexibility and basic rights but the Uber ruling showed that here as well as abroad, workers can have both. That is the least they deserve and what the public expects for our frontline workers.
"They said it couldn't be done but by getting organised and speaking out, riders have triggered a domino effect which already slashed GBP3 billion from Deliveroo's valuation and that should give pause to any corporation that thinks precarious workers can be endlessly exploited without consequence."
Deliveroo flopped on its London debut last week, at one point crashing more than 30% on the first day of conditional dealings. The group priced its IPO at GBP3.90 per share, giving a market valuation on admission of GBP7.59 billion - but the stock closed at just 280p on Tuesday.
The Financial Times on Tuesday reported that US bank Goldman Sachs bought GBP75 million in Deliveroo shares to prop up the IPO.
Citing Bloomberg data, the FT said that the purchases by Deliveroo's underwriters equate to nearly a quarter of the value of shares traded in Deliveroo during its first two days as a public company last week.
https://www.ft.com/content/bf75f260-33d8-42ea-85c3-6482aa1fb2ff
Unconditional dealings in Deliveroo - when retail investors who bought into the IPO can trade their shares - start Wednesday morning.
The company is scheduled to provide a first-quarter trading update on Thursday next week.
By Lucy Heming;Â lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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