Deliveroo workers classed as self employed by the Central Arbitration Committee

Deliveroo considers that it has won the right to not give its couriers workers’ rights such as holiday pay and National Minimum Wage following the consideration by the Central Arbitration Committee of an application by the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) to represent couriers in the districts of North London who believed their employment status was incorrect.

The Committee decided that Deliveroo couriers are self-employed. 

The fulcrum of Deliveroo’s successful argument was that the couriers’ contracts detail that they can provide a substitute before and after they have accepted a job. Evidence had been provided to show the right to substitution being exercised, further demonstrating self-employed status.

The most recent versions of Deliveroo’s contracts removed performance monitoring and branded clothing, both factors distancing couriers form being classified as a worker. 

Aspire Comment

It seems that Deliveroo has been watching Uber’s employment status struggle and is learning from their mistakes. The ruling shows that the gig economy can still operate if the contracts indicates self-employed status and has supporting evidence to show the indicators in practice.