5 Dec 2018

Deliveroo riders have lost a high court battle to gain union recognition, in a blow to gig economy campaigners...

In November last year the Central Arbitration Committee, which considers union recognition and collective bargaining cases, rejected an application by the IWGB to represent Deliveroo riders in north London...

In the judicial review of that ruling, the union claimed that not allowing collective bargaining breached the rights of Deliveroo riders under the European convention on human rights...

However, on Wednesday, the high court ruled that the riders’ human rights had not been breached and that the riders were not in an “employment relationship” in the context of European human rights law.

The IWGB general secretary, Jason Moyer-Lee, said the union would appeal against the high court ruling...

Deliveroo welcomed the judgment, which it said was “a victory for riders who have consistently told us the flexibility to choose when and where they work, which comes with self-employment, is their number one reason for riding with Deliveroo”...

[T]he UK managing director of Deliveroo, said: “We will continue to seek to offer riders more security and make the case that government should end the trade-off in Britain between flexibility and security.”