GIG economy giant Addison Lee was refused permission to appeal a “landmark” workers’ rights case today.

The employment appeal tribunal said that bicycle courier Chris Gascoigne was a worker and not self-employed and therefore entitled to basic employment rights such as holiday pay, and that Addison Lee had been denying his basic workers’ rights by classing him as an independent contractor.

Addison Lee had argued that Mr Gascoigne was under no legal obligation to work as he would only accept jobs offered to him when logged onto the app-based delivery system, even though there was no option in the app to refuse a job.

It is the first time a court has denied such a company the right to appeal an employment rights decision.

Mr Gascoigne said: “This case wasn’t just about me, but about all the other hundreds of Addison Lee couriers that were on exactly the same contract that I was on.

“I hope with this victory the company stops acting unlawfully and grants all couriers the rights they are legally entitled to.”

The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) general secretary Jason Moyer-Lee said that after several years of “a delay strategy” Addison Lee “has now come to the end of the road.”

He said: “The company is unlawfully depriving their couriers of employment rights and its defence is unarguable.”

IWGB brought the case to court along with Mr Gascoigne.

GMB union regional secretary for London Steve Garelick told the Star that although the news is “great,” it was “quite amazing how lopsided the law is” on gig economy workers’ rights.

He compared the firms to zombies coming back from the dead.

“We now need to demand that Theresa May should say ‘enough is enough’,” Mr Garelick said. “We don't want to wait for a Labour government, we want it now.

“Week after week companies are getting away with this. We need to say: ‘This is the law and this is what it should look like for workers and companies’.”

Addison Lee is a regular donor to the Conservative Party. Electoral Commission figures revealed that Addison Lee founder John Griffin donated more than £660,000, helping the Tories pull in a total of £15.4 million in donations, between January and March 2015 ahead of the general elections.

He handed the party an additional £1 million during the previous parliament, while Addison Lee as a company donated a further £100,000.

Addison Lee did not respond to requests for comment at the time of going to press.