6/6/2018 9:55:00 AM by SS Umbrella Ltd
The GMB union announced on Monday that it is taking legal action on behalf of members working for three delivery firms used by Amazon, arguing that the companies wrongly classed them as self-employed.
The GMB union wants its drivers to be given guaranteed hours and the minimum wage as well as sick and holiday pay.
The union said drivers should be classed as full-time employees rather than self-employed workers.
Amazon said its delivery providers were “contractually obligated” to pay drivers minimum wage.
The union said that drivers for the three firms were paid per parcel delivered and faced issues that fully employed workers did not, despite performing very similar duties.
Those issues include lack of job security, responsibility for insurance and maintenance of their vehicles and no right to sick pay, holiday pay or overtime.
Steve Garelick, a regional organiser for the GMB, said: “They are expected to deliver regardless of what their run is. They’re not paid any more for going over what anyone would consider reasonable hours to deliver – and they get penalised if they don’t deliver.”
The union said it was only bringing cases against delivery firms where GMB members had asked it to do so.
GMB general secretary Tim Roache said many of the union’s members who deliver packages for Amazon faced unrealistic targets, pay deductions if those targets were not met and “being told they’re self-employed without the freedom that affords”.
“Companies like Amazon and their delivery companies can’t have it both ways – they can’t decide they want all of the benefits of having an employee, but refuse to give those employees the pay and rights they’re entitled to,” he said.
Amazon said its delivery firms were expected to pay drivers a minimum of £12 an hour, “follow all applicable laws and driving regulations and drive safely”.
“Allegations to the contrary do not represent the great work done by around 100 small businesses generating thousands of work opportunities for delivery drivers across the UK,” it added.
Drivers told that they were not paid on time and required to break the speed limit in order to stay on schedule, and that they were not even allowed the time for toilet breaks.
In April, the delivery company Hermes, which delivers packages for retailers such as Next, Asos, John Lewis, Topshop and River Island, began a legal battle with eight of its own drivers. It is under pressure to settle after rival delivery firm DPD offered all its drivers sick pay and holiday pay as part of wholesale reforms to its gig working model sparked by the death of a driver it charged for attending a medical appointment to treat his diabetes and who later collapsed and died.
In 2016 the ride-hailing firm Uber was told its drivers should be classed as workers with minimum-wage rights.
Uber, which says its drivers are self-employed, lost its appeal against the decision last year but said it would appeal again. The case could end up in the supreme court this year.