A delivery company is giving workers a “false choice” by giving them all their legal rights only if they take a pay cut, a union has said.

On October 30, 65 eCourier drivers voted overwhelmingly to strike over demands from the company to recognize them as workers, not independent contractors, and over concerns about pay and conditions. The industrial action is the latest crisis at eCourier – a same-day delivery company owned by Royal Mail – in a long-running misclassification dispute.

After the opening of the strike ballot on October 8the company began calling couriers to its headquarters for mandatory one-on-one meetings with CEO Malcolm Fullick, where they were offered worker status in exchange for a 15 percent pay cut.

The drivers, most of whom are migrants and do not have English as their first language, report that they would only be shown a full copy of the contract after signing it, that they could not photograph their contracts, and could not remove copies of the contract in the room. Some workers report being told to leave their phones outside the room, and others report being asked to sign the contract on the spot.

An eCourier spokesman denied any suggestion of coercion, saying the claims were “false and misconstrued”.

“These are private meetings between individuals and the company, reminding them of the options of being a worker or independent contractor,” they said.

One contract, seen by Novara Media, said: “In the event that you do not wish to change your contractual arrangements, you may continue with your current Independent Contractor terms.”

The Union of Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) says the company is presenting workers with a “false choice”, making them choose between rights and pay. The union says it is not up to the CEO to determine worker status, but that it was dictated by the realities of the employment relationship.

Under the current pay scheme, most moped medical couriers are paid £16 an hour before costs. If they accept the new working status contract, their pay will be reduced to £13.45 or £13.26 an hour. However, the new contract has not been offered to the entire workforce, many of whom are paid jobs and often earn below the minimum wage after costs.

Ane Lima, a 44-year-old Brazilian delivery driver, said eCourier “makes us pay for our legal right by reducing our salary”. Most of the workers rejected the contract offer, Novara Media understood.

The IWGB alleges that eCourier is engaging in “box ticking” by offering courier contracts on terms they cannot accept so that the company tells customers it is the union and not the workers who are demanding worker status.

Lima said eCourier would use couriers rejecting the offer “as an excuse to say eCourier workers don’t want worker status, but that’s not true.”

Alex Marshall, chairman of the IWGB, said: “eCourier CEO Malcolm Fullick clearly believes he is above the law and it is at his discretion to choose which members of his workforce are legally entitled to holiday pay and which this is refused. despite the fact that these workers are fully integrated into the company and share exactly the same terms of engagement.

“Instead of realizing that it is time to follow the law and give his employees the rights he has denied for so long, he has chosen to drag workers into one-on-one meetings and give them the false choice between rights or pay cuts .

“This approach, which blatantly ignores labor law, can only be seen as an attempt to intimidate an already mistreated workforce and discourage them from going on strike, an unfortunately all too common tactic in an industry where rogue employers are often unchallenged.”

An eCourier spokesperson said: “eCourier offers new couriers the opportunity to be employed either as employees (with entitlements such as holiday pay and pension contributions) or as independent contractors. The majority of couriers preferred to be employed through the independent self-employment contract. Drivers have time to make a decision with all the relevant information to ensure they make an informed choice.”

“We have had no complaints or complaints from individual drivers to support their position or the allegations made. If any of our drivers have a concern about how they are involved, or indeed any other issue, then it should be raised directly with the company so that it can be properly addressed.”

This is not the first time that eCourier has been at the center of a controversy over the classification of its workers.

In 2017, eCourier admitted it had misclassified driver Demille Flanore as a self-employed contractor, thereby unfairly denying him the right to national minimum wage and holiday pay. Then-CEO Ian Oliver promised to carry out an immediate review of the worker status of the other hundreds of carriers employed by the firm on the same terms as Flanore.

However, no evaluation has been carried out. In 2019, eCourier drivers launched an employment tribunal over their misclassification, but five years on, the tribunal has yet to schedule a preliminary hearing date.