UK court says union's appeal against ruling in a case against Deliveroo on employee classification can proceed, but only on limited right to unionize grounds
Context & Ripple Effects
The IWGB union has been fighting Deliveroo over rider status since 2017, and this ruling keeps a sliver of that fight alive: the appeal can proceed, but only on the narrow ground of the riders' right to unionize — not on full employee classification. The same court's related docket shows where the broader claim is heading, with the High Court later dismissing the union's judicial review bid over collective bargaining rights.
The stakes are set by the contrast across the gig economy: while the UK Supreme Court ultimately forced Uber to reclassify its drivers as workers, Deliveroo's couriers kept losing — the Court of Appeal ruled them self-employed in what was then the fourth straight court win for the company, before the Supreme Court finally rejected the IWGB's collective bargaining claim outright.
First-order effects
- Delivero avoids, for now, a full reclassification fight on appeal — but it must defend against an Article 11-style right-to-unionize argument that applies even to self-employed contractors.
Second-order effects
- An IWGB win on the narrow grounds would let it organize Deliveroo riders for collective bargaining without winning employee status, pressuring Deliveroo into negotiating with a union it has so far beaten in court on classification.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, UK gig platforms face a two-front legal structure: classification battles they can win on employment status, and separate unionization claims that survive even when status challenges fail — splitting the 'self-employed' shield from the bargaining question.
The trend: UK courts are decoupling gig workers' right to collective representation from their employment classification, letting unions pursue bargaining rights even as platforms keep winning the status fight.