The widow of a courier for DPD who died from diabetes after he was fined for attending a medical appointment today slammed the parcel giant for showing a lack of compassion over the tragedy.
Ruth Lane, of Christchurch, Dorset, said she has received no apology or contact from bosses at DPD following husband Don’s death last month.
Mr Lane, 53, skipped numerous appointments with kidney specialists after he was fined £150 for missing a day’s work for attending another hospital visit over his diabetes.
Don Lane, 53, from Christchurch in Dorset, (pictured with his wife, Ruth) had to pay a £150 daily fine if he did not find someone to cover his round while he was going to the doctor
His manager told him he could not understand why he required a day off for it and issued the daily fine as he ‘did not see that the breach should be rescinded’.
In the space of year the courier collapsed four times due to his diabetes and missed the appointments as he felt under pressure to cover his rounds to the detriment of his health.
Mr Lane collapsed at home on December 30 and died in hospital five days later.
His devastated wife said DPD had failed in their ‘duty of care’ to her husband and accused them of showing a lack of compassion over his death.
Mrs Lane, 55, told MailOnline: ‘There has been no letter from head office, no apology. I’ve not heard a word from them.
‘DPD were totally unsympathetic to my husband. His manager didn’t understand why Don couldn’t have come into work first or left to go to the appointment.
‘The company were abrupt, cold, horrible and uncaring. They failed in their duty of care.
‘After that, his work mate would say you have to go to your appointments but he said he had to cancel because they had too many deliveries.
‘There was a huge pressure to deliver parcels to tight slots. He would never get breaks and they would get told off if they missed their time slots.
‘They knew how ill he was. He had collapsed at work in the past. It wasn’t like he had done something wrong – he didn’t ring up to say he was hungover or faking it.
‘They didn’t even have the decency to tell him they had fined him the day after the hospital appointment he went to.
‘He only found out he had been billed £150 when he received his next payslip. It was so cowardly on their part.’
Ruth Lane, his widow, who is pictured today, said: ‘There was a constant threat of a fine’
Mr Lane first collapsed due to his diabetes on December 27, 2016.
He collapsed again and fell into a diabetic coma while in his van at work in January 2017.
Last July, Mr Lane attended a hospital appointment he had told his bosses about months earlier but was still fined £150 by the company.
At the time he wrote to his line manager justifying taking time off for the appointment.
He wrote: ‘I have cancelled so many appointments because I couldn’t make the time to get there that the renal department have stopped treating me. I had to go.’
His DPD area manager replied: ‘I fail to understand why a full day off was required and as such do not see that the breach [the £150 fine] should be rescinded.’
He collapsed into a diabetic coma in September 2017.
Mrs Lane, who works at a Marks and Spencer Food Hall, said that in the days before he died her husband was feeling sick and vomiting blood, but still went into work because he feared being fined.
Mrs Lane, who has one son Jordon, 22, by her husband, said: ‘He looked so ill, like an 80-year-old man. He was sick and vomiting blood but he still felt like he had to go to work.
‘He was so dedicated to his work and I just wish he would have gone to his appointments. Don was so lovely, so fun, a joker, he loved life.
Mr Lane’s (pictured) devastated wife said DPD had failed in their ‘duty of care’ to her husband and accused them of showing a lack of compassion over his death
‘I’m so lost without him, so lonely. The house is so empty. I miss him so much.’
DPD said it was ‘profoundly sorry’ for charging Mr Lane but said there was ‘confusion’ at the time.
The statement added: ‘Don attended his appointment, but it isn’t clear why he was then charged, when the charge hadn’t been applied at any other time. We got it wrong on that occasion.’
The company said it had monitored Mr Lane’s health in 2017 and given him a quieter route, but they did not know about his coma in September.
‘We weren’t made aware that Don was feeling sick and vomiting up some blood at this time,’ it added.
‘We were shocked and hugely saddened by Don’s death and our thoughts go out to his family and friends at this difficult time.’
Most of the firm’s drivers are self-employed, meaning that they will lose their daily earnings of around £200.
On top of this, the couriers say they are being fined for every day they are off without cover, bringing their daily loss to £350. On average a driver for the company is paid £37,000 a year.
Bournemouth depot of DPB on the Ferndown Industrial Estate, where Mr Lane worked
There are 910,000 people in Britain working on a zero hours contract.
On these contracts, workers are not guaranteed any specific number of hours work a month, which leaves them vulnerable if they have to call in sick.
A record 903,000 people reported they are now working zero hours in September 2016.
Women make up 55 per cent of those on zero-hours contracts, while one in five of those on the contracts is in full-time education.
The majority of workers on zero-hours contracts are young, part-time or in full-time education.
The average number of hours worked by people on the contracts is 25 hours a week, with around a third saying they want more hours.