Next week, the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) is set to represent 45 medical couriers in a landmark holiday pay claim worth more than £1 million, against NHS contractor The Doctors Laboratory (TDL).
Dr Jason Moyer-Lee, general secretary at IWGB will represent the medical couriers, who are claiming that over the course of 20 years they have accumulated upwards of £1 million in unpaid holiday.
The case argues that, until recently, TDL had incorrectly classified its couriers as independent contractors rather than direct employees. Following legal action initiated by IWGB in 2017, TDL reclassified the 45 couriers in question. The current case argues that the organisation should compensate them for the years during which the claimants were not provided with the holiday pay they would have been entitled to, had they been correctly classified.
The case will be heard at the London Central Employment Tribunal from 3 to 5 February 2020.
Moyer-Lee will be arguing that the recent decision in King V Sash Window Workshop by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) removes previous restrictions on holiday pay claims, when workers have been denied their right to be paid holiday.
Moyer-Lee said: “Like so many other companies in the so-called 'gig economy', TDL behaves as if there are no consequences for repeatedly breaking the law. But the IWGB is going to fight for every pound of holiday pay that TDL refused to give its couriers over the past two decades. When the law is broken, someone needs to pay."
TDL was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.
