Statement on the outcome of the Josh Dunne trial:

Statement in the aftermath of the Josh Dunne trial: 

Every delivery rider I have spoken with has echoed the same sense of profound sadness and regret that this situation ever arose. Many who had been paying attention to community relations in the run up to this tragedy had felt that something like this would inevitably happen, and could indeed happen again if government doesn’t step in to address the root causes of the violence on our streets. 

Many believe that only way to avoid such future tragedies is for every member of society to better communicate and understand the socio-economic, cultural and emotional circumstances of eachother. Urban youths and exploited non-European workers restricted to only being able to legally work 20 hours during a cost-of-living crisis share much more than what divides them. Both share a reality in which an eircode, an accent, or a nationality and visa type determine one’s earning potential and too often put limits on their dreams. 

Urban teenagers and delivery riders only have one enemy and that is the neoliberal economic system that commodifies everything and sees us all as economic units only here to serve capitalism, instead of breathing, decent, dreaming, feeling, thinking people who are part of the same society. It is a system that anonymously and algorithmically tries to pit us against eachother and our only hope is for every section of society to soon realise that we are all being manipulated and robbed of our dreams by those serving the interests of unregulated industries such as Deliveroo and other forms of “platform work”.

While the ICTU and Minister Michael McGrath argue the toss over a 5% wage increase for public sector workers, it is worthwhile remembering the frontline workers who are not at the negotiating table. Those such as Deliveroo workers who have seen their basic payment drop by 50% from €4.20 to €2.10 in the period from 2019 to 2022.

The current Irish Government seems to be happy to allow Deliveroo, a London-based company whose services are now being offered for free as part of Amazon Prime membership in Ireland, which pays no tax and doesn’t even have an office here, to reduce payments to workers here by 50% without any consent or agreement from those workers. 

A letter about working terms and conditions in the Delivery sector from the Tánaiste’s Ministerial office dated June 3rd stated that “the terms of a contract, including any changes to these terms, are a matter for agreement between the parties to the contract” and therefore “it would not be appropriate for the Tánaiste as Minister to comment any any proposed changes to the terms”. However, there can be no agreement, between parties when one party is allowed to make unilateral changes to the terms and conditions at a key-stroke in London and the other party (thousands of workers in Ireland) is faced with only two choices, either continue to work or not after having invested thousands in their electric vehicle, uniforms and others expenses. 

Deliveroo doesn’t seek consent, it seeks only to coerce its workers knowing well that most of its workers here are prevented from other lines of employment due to out-dated visa rules that only permit many visa holders to only work 20 hours a week legally. Deliveroo is conspiring with these antiquated Department of Justice rules into creating a new class of second-class citizen in Ireland. 

The parallels between absentee landlordism and the way in which Deliveroo is allowed conduct business here in 2022 are striking. The cost of living goes up as wages go down, these are the same policies that led to centuries of emigration, however now as a country of net immigration rather than net emigration we have begin forecasting what will happen if such exploitative policies are allowed to continue. Something has to give, what will that be? Social Cohesion itself? Or out of this can we instead find renewed solidarity in the perpetual search for socio-economic justice and equality? 

The likes of O’Connell and Parnell could eventually hold absentee landlords to account by going to Westminster but how are we to hold Deliveroo to account? How can a worker argue with an app or reason with an algorithm? The only answer is for Deliveroo CEO Will Shu to be summoned to Dublin for an Oireachtas committee hearing or else have their trading license be suspended here. What’s the likelihood of that happening before another tragedy? Please ask the Government this question: Do we need another tragedy for Deliveroo to be held to account for how badly it treats its workers here?

If Deliveroo and other companies fail to do whatever is necessary for our streets to become safer, then we should push for them to be replaced by a public delivery company/co-operative that is fully transparent and accountable to the communities it serves.

Delivery workers have repeatedly said that separate from the ongoing debate about employment status of such workers in the EU, the introduction of a €5 minimum payment per order, similar to a taxi driver’s minimum fare, would help alleviate the pressures on delivery workers. The lower payments go, the more risks will be taken and the more accidents there will be on our streets. It’s inevitable, because newly arrived workers who don’t know the streets are constantly starting off, mostly on push bikes without an electric motor, making it harder for them to reach KPI (Key Performance Indicators) targets as well making them more vulnerable to those who might consider their light green uniform a target itself. 

This is what real life Hunger Games looks like on the streets of Dublin in 2022, so either the government acts to make sure everyone goes to work insured and earning at least minimum wage, or every section of society should unite over the summer to replace a government that refuses to listen and act.

In the meantime I urge every Dubliner to communicate between the generations and express support and solidarity with other members of society as we emerge from over two years of isolation. Delivery workers are our brothers and sisters, as are Josh’s family and friends. We must feel each other’s pain and promise to make sure that we never let such tragedies happen again. We’re all being indoctrinated and exploited by those who preach the gospel of profit. There is no them and us, we all share the same streets and no algorithm, no app, whether it be Deliveroo or TikTok can be allowed encourage situations in which any individual is ever put at risk or seen as a target for any type of violence or revenge.

The peoples of Ireland and Latin America didn’t survive centuries of colonisation only to turn on eachother now. We’ve been through the same battles for freedom together, we’ve inspired eachother and are uncannily similar in terms of our wit and humour. We must remember that we are part of a new Ireland that we are building together and be mindful not to make the same mistakes as our neighbours. Together we must learn from horrifically tragic circumstances such as those in which Josh’s life was taken and promise ourselves that they will never be repeated.

Fiachra Ó Luain

Fiachra is Labour Rights’ Officer of the ELSU that chaired an online meeting between An Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, SIPTU and Deliveroo workers among others in March 2021 and is hopeful that the current government can act to protect delivery workers and members of the public alike before it is replaced.