Delivery firm DPD improves conditions for workers after driver's death
The changes follow the death earlier this year of a driver who was fined by the company after attending a hospital appointment.
Monday 26 March 2018 18:26, UK
Delivery firm DPD is to offer holiday and sick pay to thousands of drivers after it was criticised following the death of a worker who was fined for attending a medical appointment to treat his diabetes.
DPD, which delivers parcels for retailers such as M&S, Amazon and John Lewis, said it would become the first parcel delivery company to introduce a self-employed worker contract.
Delivery driver Don Lane, 53, from Dorset, died in January after, his widow said, he had missed three hospital appointments.
That prompted the company to seek to "learn from our mistakes".
DPD said its new arrangements would offer drivers some of the protections of being employed, such as paid annual leave, pension entitlement and sick pay, as well as some of the flexibility associated with being self-employed.
It said around 6,000 drivers would be given the chance to move to the new arrangements.
The courier company also said it was scrapping its controversial £150 "breach charge" for drivers who miss work, as part of a strategic review of its operations.
This will be replaced by a "more consistent and transparent points-based service failure system".
DPD chief executive Dwain McDonald said: "We recognise that we need to improve the way we work with our drivers.
"While the self-employed franchise scheme has benefited thousands of drivers over the past 20 years, it hasn't moved with the times and needs updating."
The company has appointed Lord Watts, former chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, and Iain Wright, the former chairman of the Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee, as external advisers.
DPD said earlier this year that it needed to learn from mistakes after the death of Mr Lane, admitting that he was "incorrectly charged £150 for not providing services, when in fact he was attending a hospital appointment" and that it was "profoundly sorry".
Mr Lane's widow told the Guardian in February that there was a "constant threat of a fine" and that he had cancelled three hospital appointments.
She said at the time: "He was putting the company before his own health."