A McDonald’s manager at a branch in Northern Ireland warned Uber Eats drivers they had a “responsibility” to learn English in their own time and claimed to have dismissed a courier for being “cheeky”, a leaked recording reveals.

Like many couriers for food delivery apps, Uber Eats drivers are formally self-employed, but the recording of a meeting from March last year underlines the pressures they can face from restaurants, as well as from the apps themselves.

James Farrar, the director of the campaign group Worker Info Exchange, which obtained the recording, said: “McDonald’s are micromanaging the delivery workers in Antrim and Ballymena as if they are direct employees but then hide behind the Uber platform to avoid responsibility.

“For years Uber has specialised in exploiting workers; now they are selling access to their platform to help other large multinationals do the same.”

Neil Moore, a regional officer for the Unite union, said: “Unite is increasingly concerned by the exploitative employment model used by fast food delivery companies. All too often the interests of low-paid and short-staffed workers are being played off against those of couriers.”

The 45-minute briefing was for drivers serving McDonald’s Antrim restaurant, but a recording of it was being shared by staff in a Facebook group for drivers at the nearby Ballymena branch as recently as last week, along with a “code of conduct” with “points drivers must adopt”.

“If it’s important to the restaurant, it’s going to be important to you guys,” the McDonald’s manager says at the start of the briefing, encouraging couriers to share his comments with their colleagues.

He says relations between drivers and the restaurant have improved since a previous briefing three months earlier, but “there’s some naughty boys and girls we need to talk about today”.

The manager raises the issue of couriers’ proficiency in English. “You can’t walk up to the front counter with your phone and point at your phone and tell the staff: ‘Where is this?’,” he says.

He says his staff complain because “they think you’re being harsh or abrupt, but you’re just speaking normally, the way you would do in Romania. You know, English is a bit softer.”

It is “your responsibility to improve your language and your communication”, he adds.

The manager goes on to mention a string of other issues, including couriers being too slow to pick up orders, failing to close delivery bags properly, claiming free drinks they are not entitled to, and using two phones with separate Uber Eats accounts. He says he and his colleagues will be checking drivers’ phones from now on to prevent this.

“In my other store, I had to remove two drivers. I had to remove them, gone. One was cheeky, and one just wasn’t working as a team,” he says.

Formally, restaurants have no power to “remove” particular couriers, though they could raise complaints about them to Uber Eats.

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Local drivers who spoke to Worker Info Exchange said the small town had only a limited number of restaurants, so it would be hard to make a living without delivering from McDonald’s.

At one point in the recording of the meeting, a driver interjects to say that after petrol and car running costs and insurance, “I barely make £100 a day. I can show you.”

Uber cab drivers have been classed as workers since 2021, after a supreme court ruling, giving them access to holiday pay and a pension scheme, though not the full rights of an employee, but Uber Eats couriers remain self-employed.

Employment law is devolved to the Northern Ireland assembly. The Department for the Economy recently carried out a consultation on whether to boost employment rights, including asking about the risks of “bogus self-employment”.

“Genuinely self-employed individuals can exercise a large degree of flexibility and control over how, if and when they work,” the consultation said, adding: “Where a worker has been misclassified as self-employed and the reality of their relationship is that of a worker or an employee, the worker is at risk of missing out on important employment protections.”

A McDonald’s spokesperson said “respectful working relationships with couriers” were essential.

“We encourage all of our restaurants and franchisees to actively foster these relationships, as do our delivery partners with their couriers,” they said. “We believe our customers get the best service when our teams work collaboratively with couriers and create an environment where they do their job most effectively.

“We are discussing this specific instance that has been brought to our attention with the franchisee organisation and reminding them of best practice in creating respectful, positive and collaborative environments.”

An Uber Eats spokesperson said: “Uber Eats couriers are self-employed and are free to work when and where they choose. Convening a meeting of this nature is not something Uber condoned nor participated in. We are currently investigating and have reached out to McDonald’s directly on this matter.”