Uber, Hermes and Deliveroo, firms considered part of the gig economy, were questioned yesterday by members of Parliament over its employment practices.

The session examined whether more can be done to provide high quality work and improve access to employment rights and benefits as well as the potential impact of the Taylor Review. Earlier this year MPs criticised and condemned gig economy companies, including Uber and Deliveroo, and called for an end to ‘bogus self-employment practices’.

The gig economy firms told the committee that they do not believe many of their self-employed drivers and riders would take up employee status if they were forced to offer it as a result of tribunal decisions.

Uber, the human cloud ride sharing firm, currently classifies its UK drivers as self-employed. Uber was asked about how much it would cost in National Insurance payments if self-employed drivers were directly employed. The firm’s UK Head of Policy Andrew Byrne said, “I don’t have the precise figures ... but I‘m certain it would be the tens of millions certainly.”

"If we were forced to switch all of our self-employed drivers to a worker contract, it's absolutely something the business could cope with,” Byrne said. “It would change the nature of the relationship we would have with the drivers themselves, we would exert more control between us and the driver. It would involve looking a bit more like a traditional private hire company, the setting of shifts, pay what looks like a salary, that's how we would try and balance supply and demand."

Uber’s licence to operate in London also expired last month and Transport for London has refused to renew it on the basis that the company is not a “fit and proper” private car hire operator. Uber has also said it would appeal the ruling and a decision is expected before Christmas.

Hermes, a courier company, has also come under criticism over its employment practices. Earlier this year, the GMB trade union said it would launch legal proceedings against Hermes, arguing that the drivers are not self-employed and should have the same rights as employees.

During the session, MPs grilled Hermes Director of Legal Affairs Hugo Martin over the treatment of the company’s self-employed couriers. Martin apologised to MPs over a case in which a driver's contract was cancelled because he was unable to work due to the premature birth of a child. Another case stated that a courier said he had not taken a day's holiday in 10 years and was told on a day when he was working while sick that “the parcel is more important than you”.

Martin said that a new code of conduct introduced last year ‘should make incidents of this kind a thing of the past’.

Meanwhile, Dan Warne, managing director of the UK and Ireland for food courier Deliveroo, said that the cost of providing rights to workers will mean they will pass the cost on to consumers by raising the cost of delivery by £1. The firm added that 50% of its riders, are students who prefer flexible working arrangements.