Paris (AFP)

Dozens of Deliveroo delivery men gathered Saturday night in Paris to protest against their new fee schedule and the pay cut it leads to them, a prelude to several other actions in the week, said an AFP journalist.

The deliverymen, bike helmet on the head, deployed in the early evening a banner of the Republic Square displaying: "The street is our factory, the convicts of the bitumen raise the head".

Gathered at the initiative of the Collective of independent deliverers of Paris (Clap 75), the demonstrators protested against the decision of the platform British to lower the tariffs of the shortest races and to increase that of the long races, neglected by the deliverymen because not very profitable. The platform has removed the minimum price of 4.70 euros for a race, which applied to Paris (it varies by city).

"We had short races at 4.70 euros, now we end up with races at 2.50, 2.60, 2.70 euros", explained to the microphone Jérôme Pimot, Clap 75, claiming a minimum of remuneration 20 euros an hour because "when we win 11 euros Smic, we are protected, we have the Secu, we have the retreat (while) we do not have all that".

He also demanded "a meter, like taxis", so that the races are paid according to the distance traveled and that the waiting time of the deliverymen in the restaurants is also taken into account.

According to the platform, the new grid offers "better pricing, more fair" and "more than 54% of orders are paid more". But for Jean-Daniel Zamor, Clap 75, interviewed by AFP, long races are not profitable because "they can do more than one hour, the equivalent of three or four short races". It estimates between 30 and 50% the loss of remuneration for the deliverymen.

The protesters planned to split up in small groups to block several restaurants near the Place de la République. They decided to renew the operation Saturday, August 10 and to disengage Wednesday between noon and 15 hours by refusing to take orders, said Mr. Zamor to AFP.

Other occasional strikes and blockades of restaurants have taken place in recent days in Nice, Toulouse, Tours or Besançon.

With 10,000 partner restaurants in 200 cities, the French market is the second largest for Deliveroo, after the UK-based market.

© 2019 AFP