A driver at the delivery firm Hermes had their contract cancelled as they had to dash to hospital because their baby was born prematurely, MPs today heard.
The courier was told that ‘parcels come first’ as they were booted out of the company because of the emergency, a Parliamentary select committee was told.
Hugo Martin, director of legal affairs at Hermes, apologised after he was challenged by MPs over the behaviour.
Labour MP Anna Turley revealed the incident as she grilled bosses of the gig economy in a hearing of the business select committee.
Turning to the Hermes boss, she said: ‘You say that in a family emergency, such as a bereavement or a sick child or extreme weather, the field team should make every effort to assist the courier to ensure their cover for the round is arranged.
Hugo Martin, the legal chief at Hermes (pictured in Parliament today) today apologised to MPs after they confronted him about claims a courier was axed because they had to leave work to dash to hospital for the premature birth of their child
‘But we heard this morning from someone whose colleague had a baby who was born prematurely, so they were rushed to hospital.
‘And the boss essentially said that’s it, your contract is cancelled. We’re not using you anymore. The words were “parcels come first”.
Mr Martin said the company had been ‘shocked’ by evidence of the way its self-employed couriers were treated and apologised.
He told the committee: ‘That conduct is unacceptable.
‘And as per the new code of conduct – that would be a breach of the code of conduct by the field manager or whoever it was who said that and that would be a disciplinary mater.
‘The standard operating procedures that have been rolled to all the field managers would stop that from ever happening today.’
He added: ‘If it happened in the past, all we can do is apologise and say the pressure of a vastly expanding business puts pressure on people.
‘We had assumed couriers were being treated fairly throughout the network. It turns out in some cases they weren’t.
‘We accept that and we have taken real meaningful steps to address it and make sure it never happens again.’
The working conditions in the gig economy has been thrust under the microscope amid complaints of Dickensian practices.
Some working in the gig economy have complained that they are essentially employees without the legal rights, sick pay or security of a contract.
Labour MP, pictured in today’s hearing at Parliament of the business select committee, challenged the Hermes boss over the incident. She said the driver was told ‘the parcel comes first’ as they were axed from the firm
But bosses insist workers want the flexibility that the sector offers and that their staff are paid properly.
Mr Martin said Hermes now maintains a network of back-up drivers to provide cover in cases like the birth of a premature baby or a sickness, if couriers were unable to find someone else to do their round.
Those wanting a break during busy periods were free to find ‘substitutes’ to do their work for them.
Mr Martin said the case of a courier going 10 years without a holiday was ‘news to me’.
But he acknowledged that the company was ‘shocked’ by the findings of Frank Field MP’s 2016 inquiry into the treatment of self-employed workers in the gig economy, which prompted the introduction of its code of conduct.
He insisted that couriers were treated ‘with dignity and respect’ and were not ‘unduly pressured’ into going without holiday or days off sick.
Couriers earn a minimum of £8.50 an hour and an average of £12.20 – or £10.60 after expenses like petrol are taken into account – he said.
But Labour MP Peter Kyle told him: ‘The evidence we have seen is that (for couriers) life has to fit around the work.
‘There is a chasm between what you are saying and the life you are describing of the couriers and the one we are hearing about.’
Hermes and other gig economy firms told the committee that they do not believe many of their self-employed drivers and riders would take up employee status if they were forced to offer it as a result of tribunal decisions.
Mr Martin said that offering employed status to up to 15,000 couriers would cost the company £58.8 million a year in national insurance, holiday pay and sick pay.
While cab-hire firm Uber’s head of public policy Andrew Byrne said the bill for its 50,000 self-employed drivers would run into ‘tens of millions’.
Theresa May, pictured in No10 today, ordered a review into the gig economy – the Taylor Review looked into how to give workers in the gig economy more protection
Both Hermes and Uber are currently facing employment tribunal cases brought by workers who want to be classed as employees rather than self-employed.
But Mr Martin told the committee: ‘In our case we think the couriers don’t want to be workers in the vast majority of cases. They are very happy being self-employed.
‘The self-employment model creates a flexible framework which allows us to provide these opportunities in the first place.
‘The work fits around the life of the couriers and their life is such that they would not be able to access traditional PAYE employment.
‘We believe in the unlikely event that couriers were deemed to be workers, there would be very little take-up.’
Mr Byrne told the committee that the company could ‘cope with’ switching its drivers on to employee status.
But he said it would mean ‘exerting more control over the driver’ in terms of set shifts and paying a fixed salary which many drivers would not welcome.
The UK managing director of Deliveroo, Dan Warne, told the committee that the flexibility of self-employment was ‘very, very popular’ with the company’s 15,000 riders.