Some 500 African delivery drivers of the Uber Eats platform, many of them undocumented, demonstrated in Paris in front of the French headquarters of the American firm, after the disconnection of 2,500 worker accounts identified as fraudulent. Uber says that the numerous deactivations are the consequence of an audit carried out after the signature of a “charter” with the government to “harmonize the control practices between platforms”, in order to fight against the irregular subletting of deliverymen accounts. The 60,000 active accounts were therefore audited “by an external provider” who identified 2,500 profiles considered fraudulent. All the delivery drivers interviewed admit to having used identification that did not belong to them to create their profile but criticize Uber’s hypocrisy. “For three years I worked like that for them,” says Ismaël Meïté, a 32-year-old undocumented Ivorian. “They knew very well that the ID and the profile picture were not identical, but it was not a problem. During the Covid-19 we worked a lot and now they say that we are not compliant?” he denounces. Uber Eats assures that each delivery driver has been informed of the reason for his deactivation and that there is a possibility of appeal, which none of the delivery drivers interviewed at the event confirmed. Uber also said it reactivated 3.8 percent of the disconnected accounts after reconsideration of specific cases.
SOURCE: AFRICA NEWS