Sick Parcelforce couriers charged up to £250 if they can't find cover

[tinfoilhat]

Tragedy has struck Don Lane, a 53-year-old courier with the firm DPD, after he collapsed and died from diabetes after being fined £150 by the courier company for attending a hospital appointment to treat his disease.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/feb/05/courier-who-was-fined-for-day-off-to-see-doctor-dies-from-diabetes

 

As another courier said upon hearing of Lane's death:

“£150 is a lot of money for most people so people put their health second in order to provide for their family,”

 

Downing Street said his death was "shocking".

I do hope this means that things will change for delivery workers.

 

There's a danger we're going to throw the baby out with the bath water here. A lot of couriers like self employment - theyll earn more money that way. Alot of the drivers i deal with across a broad section of couriers have done it for years. Most of them (not all and not dpd as it goes) are self employed. Sure they'll have a whinge but cleary not enough to leave. Not unlike the poor chap who died. Dpd have alot of salaried drivers on the books who aren't self employed. I wonder if a) the dodgy sounding management would have been anymore sympathetic if he had been employed (I doubt it) or b) if not one employed position hadn't been available in the 19 years he worked there.

 

I feel sorry for his family that the whole situation got as bad as it did but I think his employment status only explains a small part of it.

[Naive]

 

I feel sorry for his family that the whole situation got as bad as it did but I think his employment status only explains a small part of it.

 

As a former wage slave turned self employed, I agree.

 

I spent 30 years turning in to work day after day. Quitting was a liberation. I’m now happily self employed/ semi retired. I take work if I fancy it and turn it down if I don’t. That’s a very nice space to occupy and anyone should be allowed to do it.

 

Admittedly, I’m lucky. Im not really trying to make ends meet and I’m sure that more can be done to protect those who need to work. But really we need more flexibility, not less.

[tinfoilhat]

As a former wage slave turned self employed, I agree.

 

I spent 30 years turning in to work day after day. Quitting was a liberation. I’m now happily self employed/ semi retired. I take work if I fancy it and turn it down if I don’t. That’s a very nice space to occupy and anyone should be allowed to do it.

 

Admittedly, I’m lucky. Im not really trying to make ends meet and I’m sure that more can be done to protect those who need to work. But really we need more flexibility, not less.

 

He'd have got sod all flexibility at christmas, employed or self employed.

[Penistone999]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/mar/06/sick-parcelforce-couriers-royal-mail-mands-john-lewis-hamleys-dpd

 

Just signed an online petition on this.

 

Parcel force charge their workers £250 for each day they have off sick, to cover the cost of a replacement driver.

 

This is wrong- drivers are self employed and already lose a days earnings if they are too ill to work- £250 is more than the days earnings already lost.

 

This will have been in the terms and conditions of their employment ,and no one is forced them work for Parcelforce they took the job willingly ,so cant complain ..

[Mister M]

This will have been in the terms and conditions of their employment ,and no one is forced them work for Parcelforce they took the job willingly ,so cant complain ..

 

Says him who moans persistently about something as trivial as political correctness

[Anna B]

Forgive me for not getting distracted by a variety of side issues and strawmen

 

I'm focused on the fact that some parcel force employees are, and have been, made to pay £250 when they take a sick day.

 

That is very, very wrong.

 

And, what's just as sad, if not more so, is that much of the public, instead of condemning this practice, instead pull attention away from it by asking what proportion of employees are made to pay £250, or, does it depend on the time of day they ring

 

Employees are being made to pay £250 when they have to take a sick day.

 

The world truly has gone to s**t- we are living in the age of the apologists

 

I agree.

 

Some people don't seem to realise just how bad life is for some people, and getting worse. We'll be back at Victorian levels of exploitation soon. But rather than stick together and try to help each other, people nit-pick and sidetrack and argue the toss over every detail, so nothing gets done.

 

Perfect example of Divide and conquer....

 

Everything the working man has ever gained, he has had to fight tooth and nail for. Are these apologists either too young to remember, or simply so lacking in historical knowledge, to know that?

 

Until we grow a backbone and fight for what we want we will continue to be treated with utter contempt, and used as doormats.

[tinfoilhat]

[/b]

 

I agree.

 

Some people don't seem to realise just how bad life is for some people, and getting worse. We'll be back at Victorian levels of exploitation soon. But rather than stick together and try to help each other, people nit-pick and sidetrack and argue the toss over every detail, so nothing gets done.

 

Perfect example of Divide and conquer....

 

Everything the working man has ever gained, he has had to fight tooth and nail for. Are these apologists either too young to remember, or simply so lacking in historical knowledge, to know that?

 

Until we grow a backbone and fight for what we want we will continue to be treated with utter contempt, and used as doormats.

 

Do you know or care what other DPD drivers think or is just a reason to jump on and smash the system?

[Bob Arctor]

There's a danger we're going to throw the baby out with the bath water here. A lot of couriers like self employment - theyll earn more money that way. Alot of the drivers i deal with across a broad section of couriers have done it for years. Most of them (not all and not dpd as it goes) are self employed. Sure they'll have a whinge but cleary not enough to leave. Not unlike the poor chap who died. Dpd have alot of salaried drivers on the books who aren't self employed. I wonder if a) the dodgy sounding management would have been anymore sympathetic if he had been employed (I doubt it) or b) if not one employed position hadn't been available in the 19 years he worked there.

 

I feel sorry for his family that the whole situation got as bad as it did but I think his employment status only explains a small part of it.

 

Genuinely self employed people should be able to turn down work without being fined, that's the problem with firms like DPD. I often pay a self employed mate to do work on my house. If he's ill and can't come to work I don't ruin his life.

[ENG601PM]

Everything the working man has ever gained, he has had to fight tooth and nail for. Are these apologists either too young to remember, or simply so lacking in historical knowledge, to know that?

 

Until we grow a backbone and fight for what we want we will continue to be treated with utter contempt, and used as doormats.

 

You'll be especially delighted that Teresa May just announced this morning additional protections to prevent what you are concerned about. All without a tooth or nail being broken, just Tories doing the right thing for working people again.

 

What with fairer tax rates, the living wage, gig worker protection, equal employment rights, contractual transparency, fairer unions, and low low low unemployment, the Tories will soon have put right most of the things that the last Labour government did against the interests of working people.

 

---------- Post added 07-02-2018 at 08:07 ----------

 

Genuinely self employed people should be able to turn down work without being fined, that's the problem with firms like DPD. I often pay a self employed mate to do work on my house. If he's ill and can't come to work I don't ruin his life.

 

Couldn't agree more on all counts.

[Bob Arctor]

You'll be especially delighted that Teresa May just announced this morning additional protections to prevent what you are concerned about. All without a tooth or nail being broken, just Tories doing the right thing for working people again.

 

What with fairer tax rates, the living wage, gig worker protection, equal employment rights, contractual transparency, fairer unions, and low low low unemployment, the Tories will soon have put right most of the things that the last Labour government did against the interests of working people.

 

---------- Post added 07-02-2018 at 08:07 ----------

 

 

Couldn't agree more on all counts.

 

May hasn't committed to any change, let alone change any laws. All she's done is promise to consult, and hasn't bound the government to act on the outcome of any consultation.