The judgment from the UK Court of Appeal came after the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) demanded that collective wage negotiations be held for around a dozen Deliveroo riders in London, which is a right normally reserved for “workers”. On 24 June the appeals court said that riders for the food delivery application were self-employed and were therefore not entitled to this right. The decision runs contrary to recent court rulings on the so-called gig economy, most notably the UK Supreme Court’s ruling in February that Uber drivers are “workers” (see article n°12369).
This long-running case dates back to 2016, when the IWGB formally requested – without success – that Deliveroo authorise it to represent delivery riders in collective bargaining (see article n°9914). The Central Arbitration Committee (CAC), as arbiter of union recognition dispute, subsequently ruled that Deliveroo riders were self-employed and could therefore not be represented by a trade union body (see article n°10452). This position was confirmed in a court ruling in 2018 (see article n°1093
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