DELIVEROO riders were delivered a blow today as the Court of Appeal ruled that they cannot have collective bargaining rights because they are not workers.

The ruling was condemned by the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), which pledged to fight on “until Deliveroo gives these key-worker heroes the pay and conditions they more than deserve.”

The IWGB’s original application for statutory recognition was rejected in 2017 on the technicality that riders can pass a job on to a substitute and therefore cannot be classed as workers.

After the High Court also ruled in favour of the company, the union appealed, claiming that the denial of collective bargaining breached the couriers’ human rights.

IWGB president Alex Marshall said: “Deliveroo couriers have been working on the front line of the pandemic and, whilst being applauded by the public and even declared heroes by their employer, they have been working under increasingly unfair and unsafe working conditions.

“It appears that when Deliveroo talks about flexibility and being your own boss, it is talking about the flexibility of choosing when to make poverty wages and work in unsafe conditions.”

Deliveroo shares climbed from £2.51 each to about £2.70 after the judgement.

The company described the verdict as “good news for Deliveroo riders” and claimed that it had provided them “with the work they tell us they value.”