"Deliveroo riders denied rights to collective bargaining, court told", 14 Nov 2018

The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) is attempting to overturn a ruling which found that the company’s riders are not entitled to collective bargaining rights because they are “self-employed”...

But, at a hearing in London on Wednesday, John Hendy QC said the CAC [Central Arbitration Committee] failed to address the IWGB’s argument that the law which defines a “worker” must be interpreted in a way that gives effect to riders’ rights to collective bargaining under article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights...

[T]he substitution clause in Deliveroo’s contracts should not preclude riders from the right to collective bargaining...

In written submissions, Christopher Jeans QC, for Deliveroo, said the IWGB’s argument on article 11 was “an afterthought” before the CAC, which “nonetheless expressly considered the belated article 11 submission and did not accept it”.

He added... “[T]he riders did not have the specific right to collective bargaining”, which only applied to those in an employment relationship, and therefore there could be no interference with that right.

Jeans concluded that the IWGB’s contention that riders with no obligation to work, and who can appoint someone else to do any item of work and work with a competitor, had the right to bargain collectively was “extraordinary”.