OCADO couriers protested today, accusing bosses of paying poverty wages and poor treatment, despite all their hard work during the pandemic delivering food to millions of people.

The protest outside Ocado Zoom in Acton was organised by the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) and supported by Black Lives Matter, Ealing council and Labour MPs including Apsana Begum, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Barry Gardiner.

Workers said that their pay was cut by up to 50 per cent when Ocado transferred their work to the Ryde app.

IWGB said that, in what is essentially a fire-and-rehire process, the workers are now being forced to accept even worse conditions or lose their jobs.   

Union president Alex Marshall said: “Ocado claims to be in-housing all workers, but all we are seeing are job losses and big pay cuts.

“Driving down wages and forcing out workers is not what in-housing looks like. Ocado is misleading the public whilst continuing to exploit these key worker heroes.

Ocado Zoom courier Ahmad Fahim said: “Our hard work has helped make Ocado Zoom a successful business, building it up from nothing to thousands of orders a day.

“We worked all through lockdown, even though I fall into a high-risk category. I have colleagues who got ill and lost their loved ones.

“The public has applauded us for our efforts, but Ocado has taken every opportunity to slash our pay and force many of us out of work. They ignore our emails and refuse to engage with us.”

More than 500 people have taken action by joining the union’s Shame On Ocado campaign and writing to the company.

Over £1,000 has also been donated by the public to the workers’ strike fund.

Ocado was approached for comment.