eCourier says it wrongly classified Demille Flanore as an independent contractor, thus denying him holiday and sick pay
Demille Flanore (second left) with members of the IWGB union, which described eCourier’s admission of unlawful behaviour as a ‘major sea change’ for the gig economy.
A Royal Mail delivery company has been forced to launch a review into whether it is wrongly classifying hundreds of couriers as self-employed contractors, in the latest breakthrough by trade unions campaigning for more secure employment status for members of the fast-growing gig economy.
The move came after eCourier, a subsidiary of Royal Mail specialising in same-day deliveries, admitted on Friday it had wrongly classified 23-year-old London-based bicycle courier Demille Flanore as an independent contractor and had unlawfully denied him standard employment benefits such as holiday pay he should have been entitled to as a “worker”.
Rather than contest an employment tribunal claim, the company promised to pay Flanore £545 to settle the case.
eCourier’s chief executive, Ian Oliver, immediately announced a review to work out how best to implement the same worker status “for colleagues where it reflects their actual working arrangements with us”. Almost all of eCourier’s 350 delivery riders who are on the road each day are on the same terms as Flanore. eCourier turned over £22m in 2016.
Flanore’s union, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, described the admission of unlawful behaviour as “a major sea change” for the gig economy and called on eCourier to “immediately guarantee worker status to all of its couriers”.
The terms of the the company’s agreement with Flanore read: “The respondent admits that during the claimant’s engagement by the respondent he was engaged as a worker … which for the avoidance of doubt includes an entitlement to holiday pay as claimed by the claimant.”
The union had argued that Flanore was not a self-employed contractor because he was instructed on what to do by a “controller”, he was required to work exclusively for eCourier, all jobs were booked and allocated to him by eCourier, and eCourier set the prices to customers and what it would pay him.
“I’m very happy with this outcome,” Flanore said. “It is a step in the right direction for the courier industry and for people still working in it that want to take other cases to court. I hope as a result of this people that come to the industry now will have more sustainability and better terms than we had.”
Oliver, his employer, said: “Employment status is not a black and white, pass or fail issue. It is a matter of interpretation given all of the facts of an individual’s working arrangements. On review, we believe that in the case of Mr Flanore, worker status reflected his working relationship with us.”
The company has previously warned classifying couriers as workers would increase costs. In its latest annual report, its directors said the “principal risk” to eCourier’s business was if employment tribunal judges ruled their couriers were workers, not independent contractors.
Other major gig economy employers who together rely on tens of thousands of workers who do not benefit from sick pay, holiday pay and the right to a minimum wage are fighting similar claims that self-employed workers should have employment rights.
Uber, the US taxi app company that has 40,000 drivers in the UK, will this September appeal against an employment tribunal verdict that some of them should be classed as workers. CitySprint has also launched an appeal after losing a similar case. Pimlico Plumbers lost an appeal in February.
IWGB Courier Branch founding member Maggie Dewhurst, who won the claim against CitySprint, said: “The cruelty of the gig economy is clear for all to see in Demille’s case. When he had an accident at work and broke his wrist he had to take time off with no holiday or sick pay.”