Courier and taxi firm Addison Lee has been told to pay substantial legal expenses after its “unreasonable conduct” during an employment tribunal.
In January, hundreds of drivers secured a ruling that they are workers rather than self-employed contractors, giving them rights such as holiday pay and the minimum wage.
This decision built on earlier disputes dating back to 2017, when three Addison Lee drivers were found to be workers, and on the 2021 Supreme Court judgment in favour of Uber drivers, which has shaped employment law in this area.
Around 800 drivers, represented by Leigh Day solicitors, described the firm’s behaviour as vexatious, abusive, disruptive and unreasonable in their application for costs. One senior executive admitted to fabricating an email that had been presented as key evidence in the tribunal last year.
The firm has now been ordered to pay roughly £200,000, subject to court assessment, to cover part of the costs linked to disclosure, witness statements and trial preparation.
Addison Lee’s defence relied in part on a 2020 instruction that drivers could choose their own hours and would not be penalised for refusing jobs. Its written evidence included an email said to be from the chief operating officer, dated 8 July 2020. But shortly before the hearing, both the chief operating officer and operations director confirmed the email had been faked four years later.
Lawyers for the drivers argued that the false document undermined the firm’s case and cast doubt on the reliability of its wider evidence.
Employment Judge EJ Hyams noted that while the organisation came clean about the fabrication, “that did not undo the fact that that document was false and was relied on by the respondent as a key part of its case that sanctions were no longer imposed on drivers who refused jobs after 2017.
“I had no doubt that the respondent’s conduct in its defence of the claims of the claimants had been unreasonable… I also had no doubt that that conduct had led the claimants to incur costs which, if the conduct had not occurred, the claimants would not have incurred. What had occurred here was an attempt to avoid the application of the decision in the Supreme Court in Uber.”
A remedy hearing is scheduled for February 2026, where drivers could receive backpay for holiday entitlement and minimum wage rights they should have been granted during their time with Addison Lee.
Liana Wood, employment partner at Leigh Day, said: “Costs awards in the employment tribunal are rare and this judgment confirms what our clients have experienced throughout this litigation, that Addison Lee’s conduct fell far below the standards expected in employment proceedings. The tribunal’s findings send a strong message that attempts to mislead or obstruct the process will not be tolerated.
“This is particularly important for claimants who often face the hurdle of coming up against extremely well-resourced employers with expensive lawyers using every tactic available to deny workers’ rights. Our clients have waited many years for justice, and we will continue to fight to ensure they receive the compensation they are owed.”
This article is based on a piece written for Personnel Today
