Food delivery platform, Just Eat Takeaway announced plans to cut over 1,700 jobs in the UK, mostly courier jobs, as it cuts costs in the aftermath of massive yearly losses.
The UK company "is reorganizing and simplifying its delivery operation as part of the ongoing goal of improving efficiency," according to an emailed statement.
"As part of this process, we have proposed moving away from the worker model for couriers" in the UK, it added.
Just Eat Takeaway said its UK division will stop employing its own couriers -- and instead will only use self-employed gig economy workers.
Approximately 170 staff in its UK operations team will also be affected by the overhaul, but some could be redeployed.
Just Eat Takeaway had revealed earlier this month that acquisition writedowns, the souring economic climate and rising interest rates sparked a massive loss of about 5.7 billion euros ($6.1 billion) last year.
The Amsterdam-based company was created in 2020 after Dutch online service Takeaway.com gobbled up Britain's Just Eat, and business subsequently boomed on the back of the Covid pandemic-fuelled surge in home delivery, which has since subsided.
The group has also put Grubhub up for sale as it seeks to focus on Europe, having already slashed the value of the US subsidiary it bought for $7.3 billion in 2020.
(AFP)
Reena Barai, chair of the PB Conference, on the podium with Sadik Al-Hasan, Harry McQuillan, Shilpa Shah and Nick Kaye on stage
Yasmin Karsan, Pritee Panchmatia and Fin McCaul
Baba Akomolafe, Rachna Chhatralia, Patricia Tigenoah-Ojo and Raj Matharu
Shailesh Solanki 
Reena Barai 
Janet Morrison
David Webb 