[A] London tribunal has ruled that Deliveroo riders are self-employed contractors, not ‘workers.’ This means that the riders do not have basic rights to minimum wage, holiday pay, and health and safety protections. They also have no right to unionise... [W]hen the CAC convened in May and June 2017 to hear the petition for trade union recognition, two things had to be determined:

• First, are Deliveroo riders actually workers?
• And second, if they are workers, does the IWGB have large enough support among the Camden riders to collectively bargain on their behalf?

For many observers and labour rights analysts, the answer to the first question was clearly ‘yes’... But in the weeks leading up to the trial, Deliveroo’s contracts with the riders were changed... [R]iders were explicitly allowed to use a ‘substitute’ [...] to make deliveries on their behalf without seeking Deliveroo’s permission... This ability to transfer work to another person conflicts with the definition of ‘worker’ in the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992... Sadly, for now, the second question has been lost...: did the IWGB have enough support among the Camden riders to be recognised as their union? On this issue, the CAC said yes... [P]olicymakers are starting to rethink old categories like ‘worker’ and ‘contractor’...