Who is out of order here?

[fornical]

I run a healthy meal delivery company. I have several delivery drivers, however, having an issue with one in particular. My delivery drivers are self employed. Deliveries happen on a Saturday.

Long story short, I've had one of my delivery drivers for over a year now. I pay her £10 per hour and 45 pence per mile. She drives from Essex to London to collect the deliveries then back to Essex to deliver them every Saturday. She arrives to collect them at 9 am.

I text her asking for the next six weeks if she could be at pick up point at 8 am rather than 9 am.

She replied - 'See to be honest, it’s unsociable hours with it being so early at the weekend and having to get Amelia out of bed etc. I’d have to put my price up to £15 per hour. Let me know if you would be happy to go ahead with that or not. If you can’t though don’t worry I understand, It just means I’ll have to be getting up at 6.30 on a Saturday and my daughter too. Just wouldn’t be worth my while for tenner an hour xx'

AIBU to think this is totally unreasonable and out of the blue? How did she jump from £10 an hour to £15 because I asked her to come in one hour earlier. Am I being unreasonable?

Wow, you are being very unreasonable to pay your staff so poorly. Pay them a decent living wage. If your business can't afford it then it isn't viable. Employers like you are appalling.

offer to pay the extra £5 just for the one hour that is the first hour of the early drive, but it's still £10 for the rest of the hours. if she doesn't like it you can see if you can recruit a replacement.

Isn't minimum wage for the employed??

I'm with a previous poster - this was posted from the other perspective a while back.

Yabu. Pay her a decent wage and pay her for the drive to London!

Hmmm it’s the market isn’t it? If you don’t like it get someone else in to do the job. 10 quid an hour is a pretty low wage for this kind of job at the moment due to the need for drivers.

Get another driver if it bothers you that much.

I'd go with not at all then considering her response
YABU @fornical , you have changed the agreement , she has adjusted her rate to reflect this
Good luck in filling her shoes and still fulfilling you obligations to your existing customers

I knew that I'd read this before!

YABU. Especially given your update that you also don’t pay her for her journey time to yours. It’s simply not worth £10 an hour to her given that she likely has childcare costs and disrupts her family life. Is she even earning minimum wage OP? Do you have kids OP, mouths to feed, knowing the current financial climate etc. She’s not being cheeky, she’s trying to get by as best she can. Maybe she thinks by suggesting £15 she’s opening up the negotiation. If you value her, you could reply “I’m really sorry but I can’t pay more than £13/hour but I do really value you as an employee but understand if you need to look for work closer to home”.
We are all just trying our hardest to stay afloat given the state of the country- she might be understanding if you respond with a counter offer explaining it’s the best you can do. But £10 an hour is crap pay and I think you wouldn’t want that for yourself either.

Honestly sounds like you've been getting a very good deal! I think £10 an hour (not even living wage) plus not paying her travel time is pretty poor.

She’s totally within her rights to say no and charge extra for the inconvenience. Why should she have to get up an hour earlier for no benefit?

She's self employed and can set her rates. So either you want her enough to pay her rates or you don't.
Do you have an alternative who can step in?

I've seen this exact post somewhere before in the last eighteen months

Not sure if it was on MN but I've 100% seen this before as a pp said

£10 an hour is very cheap. From 1st April minimum wage rises to £10.42. I can see why she doesn't want to have to get a child out of bed at 6:30 on a Saturday too. Just find someone else if you don't want to pay her more

Hang on your not paying her to drove to London to pick up the meals. Your only paying her from when she picks them up. That is taking piss. You should be paying her for the time and milage it's takes her to drive to London

I was thinking that but then no other employer pays for you the moment you start transporting to work do they?

She didn’t have to get the job miles away

It's not out of the blue though. You changed the terms and she responded.
I completely agree with her and think she could probably get a better paid job, with better terms which means she doesn't have to get up so early.

Your in the wrong paying people very little money. If she can not choose her hrly rate then she aint self employed.

JFC

Have you ever lived on an income of £10/hour Soubriquet?

It's up to her op. You have chosen to use her on a self employed basis because of the massive benefits to you that affords. On the flip side, she can choose what her price is.

Good luck finding someone who will work self employed for £10 an hour using their own car and own insurance starting at 8am on a Saturday.

It is (as are sick pay, holiday pay, maternity leave and workers rights generally), but the figures are calculated as a benchmark to use as what the minimum amount people need to survive on, and self employed people don't need less than employed people. As PP have said, we also have to pay our tax/NI out of that.

Then we get to come on here and be told we're all tax dodging thieves, at least on a good day 🤣

She's not being unreasonable in her counter-offer, she's let you know on what basis she would agree to alter her start time.

Living Wage for London is £12 an hour btw, so £15 isn't outrageous.

She picks up in London to deliver in Essex where she lives. If she lived in London she would be paid to drive to Essex to deliver and back.

You're a right tightwad.

Hope your driver spreads the discontent, & you are made to realise that people can't live on a tenner an hour, excluding travel to site time, paying their own NI, pension & sick costs.