"DPD temporary workers may have missed out on sick pay and pensions, internal documents show", 9 August 2026

Low-paid temporary workers at one of the UK’s top courier businesses have missed out on entitlements to sick pay and pension contributions, internal documents suggest.

The payments – typically included in the “charge rate” that large brands pay recruitment companies to supply them with temporary workers – are missing from internal spreadsheets calculating the cost of employing thousands of transient staff working at DPD.

This absence suggests workers have either not been paid their entitlements, were discouraged from taking days off when sick, or were removed from roles before pension contributions became due, experts said.

The Guardian outlined to DPD the records seen and what they appear to show. The company said: “Our commercial arrangements with our agencies allow them to fulfil their statutory obligations and are benchmarked against competitors in the industry.” A spokesperson for the courier company added: “At DPD, we take our legal, regulatory and ethical responsibilities extremely seriously. As a client, engaging third-party employment agencies, DPD pays an agreed commercial charge rate to agency suppliers for providing temporary labour.“ Under UK employment law, recruitment agencies act as the primary employers of these agency workers. Consequently, statutory obligations, including the administration and payment of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and auto-enrolment pension contributions, sit directly with the agency suppliers, rather than DPD as the end-user client. “Our contractual agreements require all agency partners to strictly follow all applicable employment legislation, including statutory pay and pension auto-enrolment requirements. We continuously review our procurement processes and supplier relationships to ensure our agency partners uphold the highest standards of compliance and fair treatment for all workers.”