Workers at Royal Mail subsidiary eCourier vote to strike with 94% yes vote

• Couriers working at the last mile delivery service eCourier have voted to strike with a 94% yes vote and 84.75% turnout.
• eCourier, owned by Royal Mail, provides delivery and medical couriering services for a range of clients, including HCA, the NHS, RBS and many others.
• Workers are demanding worker status, increased pay, a fairer workplace and an end to bullying and harassment
• The majority migrant workforce will down tools for 6 days from now until the end of the year, with workers reporting that this would cause major disruption to eCourier’s clients, most notably on the medical circuit.
  

Wednesday 30 October: Couriers working at last mile delivery service eCourier have voted 94% in favour of strike action with an 84.75% turnout. The couriers, represented by the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), will take strike action for 6 days between now and the end of the year.

eCourier provides services for a range of clients, including the UK’s largest private healthcare provider HCA, the NHS, a range of private clinics and labs, as well as non-medical clients such as the Royal Bank of Scotland and Deloitte. Workers transport a range of cargo, including life saving blood for emergency blood transfusions, specimens and vaccinations, as well as documents and other packages.

Currently most workers at eCourier are classed as “independent contractors”, meaning they are denied rights, holiday pay and pensions. In 2017, the Employment Tribunal found eCourier to be unlawfully applying this classification to its workers, and instead deemed them to be “limb (b) workers” under employment law. The company committed to launch an internal investigation into the matter, but since then no investigation has taken place. eCourier workers are forced to pay their own expenses such as petrol and vehicle rental, and often end up making below minimum wage after costs.

Workers are demanding limb (b) worker status with no cut to their pay, which would grant them holiday pay and pensions, backdated holiday pay after years of being denied it, £20 per hour pay plus mileage, as well as a range of demands to make the workplace fairer and end bullying and harassment from controllers and management.

Since the balloting period began, CEO Malcolm Fullick has invited some workers to individual meetings to offer worker status contracts. This offer has not been extended to the entire workforce, and has been rejected by most individuals, on the basis that it constitutes a pay cut for most workers, and that it has not been made collectively to the entire workforce.

Alex Marshall, IWGB President says, “This strike mandate makes clear what we already know: that workers at eCourier have had enough of their poverty pay and unlawful misclassification and demand decisive and urgent change. CEO Malcolm Fullick has chosen profit over patients and people for too long now and the time is up. He can either hide away and allow disruption to his clients to take place, or finally do the right thing and sit down with his workers collectively to resolve this dispute before strike action begins.”

Ane Lima, an eCourier worker, said: “This strike is the result of years of being undervalued and deprived of what is rightfully ours, as well as the mental and physical toll it has taken on us and our families. This whole situation is completely avoidable, but instead of meeting with us to negotiate, eCourier has decided to call some of us to meetings that we consider intimidating, ignoring the many complaints and communications we have made through our union. There is still time to avoid the strike, I trust the company will act in good faith and invite us to an amicable meeting to make amends for all these wrongs – the decision is in their hands.”

For more information, please contact:

Jake Thomas (Press and Communications Officer)

jakethomas@iwgb.co.uk