The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) have won collective bargaining rights on behalf of couriers at NHS provider The Doctor’s Laboratory.

The declaration by the Central Arbitration Committee is the culmination of a long campaign by the IWGB. In June 2017, the union secured worker status for the couriers, who had previously been classified as independent contractors. This was followed by a settlement granting full employee rights to some of the couriers last month.

The couriers that form part of the collective bargaining unit work for TDL carrying pathology samples to their laboratories, but also taking blood to hospitals for emergency transfusions. Over 100 couriers work at TDL.

“We were forced to unionise since every time we went to management with a concern we were being ignored,” TDL courier and IWGB union representative Alex Marshall said. “It is quite reassuring that we will now be taken more seriously and have a seat at the table to negotiate what we are rightly entitled to.”

Couriers for TDL were treated as independent contractors which means they do not have the right to form collective bargaining units, to the minimum wage or to holiday pay.

“The TDL couriers have shown that organising and winning in the so-called “gig economy” is possible,” IWGB General Secretary Jason Moyer-Lee said. “Contrary to the Government’s empty platitudes about giving workers a stronger voice, the best way for gig economy workers to have a voice at work is to establish collective bargaining arrangements between their union and their employer.”

The IWGB has also launched a £1 million holiday pay claim against TDL on behalf of 50 couriers. The union has had a number of campaigning and tribunal victories for workers in the so-called “gig economy”, including cases against CitySprint, Uber and Addison Lee.