The head of Dutch food delivery company Just Eat Takeaway has told the BBC in an interview that he plans to phase out gig working at the company and will instead offer delivery workers contracts and better workplace protection.

Jitse Groen, who started Takeaway 20 years ago, was asked if the coronavirus pandemic had made him more aware of the problems facing gig economy workers he said. ‘It is our intent not to have those in Europe’.

Groen said he did not like the way people who delivered food for his company were having to endure tougher working conditions.

‘We are large multinational with quite a lot of money, and we want to insure our people,’ he said. ‘We want to be certain that they do have benefits, that we do pay taxes on those workers.’

He did say that hiring more staff did not mean all riders will lose the flexibility which some enjoy and that there may be scope to keep the freelance model in some countries, if it is possible to pay insurance for them.

Takeaway handed 34% more orders in the first half of this year in its three biggest European markets of The Netherlands, Britain and Germany.

In June, Just Eat Takeaway reached agreement to take over its American peer Grubhub to create what it says is ‘the largest online food delivery company outside China’.

The combined operation — which processed 593 million orders in 2019 — will have over 70 million active customers worldwide, Groen said at the time.