A law firm has announced it is advising Deliveroo riders on potential legal action against the group, over workers’ rights.
Leigh Day, which last year won a landmark tribunal against Uber, is challenging Deliveroo over its stance that its riders are self-employed and therefore not eligible for rights such as holiday pay and the National Minimum Wage.
The firm claims that the fact that Deliveroo recruits riders through a process of interviews, online tests and trial shifts, requires them to sport Deliveroo branding and subjects them to performance reviews, proves that they are employees.
Annie Powell, a lawyer in the employment team at Leigh Day, said: “The idea that Deliveroo riders are self-employed contractors in business on their own account and that Deliveroo is a customer of each rider’s business is absurd.
“Deliveroo riders carry out the sole function of Deliveroo – to deliver food and drink from restaurants to customers – and are tightly controlled by Deliveroo in what is clearly a dependent work relationship.
“We will argue that Deliveroo has no reasonable grounds to argue that its riders are self-employed contractors and that it should immediately ensure that its riders are paid at least the National Minimum Wage and receive paid holiday.”
