Just Eat has announced a series of partnerships to offer free legal and food safety advice to all of its UK restaurant partners, as it expands its support during the coronavirus pandemic.
All of Just Eat’s 35,700 restaurant partners will be able to access free online advice through Just Eat’s new partnership with legal services specialist Markel Law. Areas covered include employment, human resources, health and safety, tax and commercial issues, with Markel’s Law Hub providing hundreds of legal templates and ‘how to’ guides.
Restaurants will be able to access support both on issues arising due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the Hub featuring a special section on this, and more general legal queries.
In addition, the first 4,000 Just Eat partners to sign up will also be offered free one-on-one support through phone consultations with Markel Law’s 50+ strong team of solicitors, with a discounted rate for all additional partners wishing to use the telephone service.
Just Eat launched a free food safety and health helpline in May with leading food safety experts NSF, to bolster its ongoing support package, guidance and free-training already available for any restaurant on the platform. Through the NSF helpline, restaurants can receive specialist 24 hour support and advice relating to food safety and hygiene matters.
To help restaurants manage cash flow issues, Just Eat has moved to a twice weekly payment schedule, and has introduced a fast track account registration for Booker and Makro. The registration enables restaurant partners to earn 7% cashback on their purchases from these websites, as well as 3% cashback from their shopping at Tesco.
Andrew Kenny, UK Managing Director, commented, “Running a successful restaurant comes with a myriad of challenges, and that has reached new levels for our restaurant partners as they grapple with the impact of COVID-19. Accessing expert advice can be tricky for independent restaurants, when they often have more immediate day-to-day tasks to deal with.
“Since the Covid-19 outbreak, we’ve been striving to help the restaurants we work with adjust to the ‘new normal’ in every way we can, and we hope that our new partnerships will provide support and reassurance as they adapt.”
Christopher Penfold, Sales Director, Professional Services, at Markel Law said: “We are pleased to partner with such a well-respected brand in the UK and look forward to supporting Just Eat’s extensive network of restaurants. Our legal helpline already handles in excess of 200,000 legal queries every year, so we are well equipped to support and advise Just Eat’s partners through Covid-19 and beyond.”
The legal services and food safety advice packages are the latest additions to Just Eat’s restaurant services and support function. Through its 30 day Emergency Support Package, Just Eat handed more than £11m to the independent restaurants it works with to help them adapt their operations and support their teams through the COVID-19 pandemic.
