British parcel delivery firm DPD is offering its 6,000 drivers the right to be classified as workers in the wake of a courier’s death.

The courier, Don Lane, had previously been fined by DPD for attending a medical appointment to treat his diabetes. According to The Guardian, Lane subsequently missed appointments with specialists because he felt under pressure to cover his round and faced DPD’s £150 daily penalties if he did not find cover for his round. Lane then collapsed and died of the disease.

DPD denied that Lane was afraid of taking time off due to the penalties.

The company has stated that it is scrapping the penalty as part of its changes to working practices. However, they added that it had begun the review into working practices months before Lane's death.

In addition to scrapping the penalties, the company will offer its 6,000 couriers the right to be classed as either workers, an interim status that includes paid holiday, sick pay and access to a pension scheme with the possibility to still be paid per delivery, as a fully-fledged employee or to remain a self-employed franchisee. Currently, more than 5,000 of the drivers are self-employed and are paid per delivery but do not have employment rights.

Drivers who choose to be directly employed will be paid less per parcel delivered to offset the cost of paid holiday, sick pay and pensions, according to DPD.

DPD, which operates in the gig economy due to its reliance on self-employed workers, is the first such firm to propose improved employment rights to its workers.

“It is awful that it took the death of Don Lane to prompt DPD to make this move,” Frank Field, Chair of the Commons select committee on work and pensions, said. “But having now responded in this way, the company has set a totally new direction for every other company in the gig economy to follow.”

Dwain McDonald, Chief Executive of DPD, commented, “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.”