Internal documents from DPD, one of Europe’s leading parcel groups, suggest that thousands of temporary workers may have been denied statutory sick pay and pension contributions. The courier company, which is a subsidiary of France’s La Poste, operates a vast network involving over 15,000 personnel, 10,000 vehicles, and 84 locations, processing more than 260 million parcels annually for major clients such as Amazon, John Lewis, and Marks & Spencer.
Reviewed internal records covering the past two financial years, which detail the costs associated with more than 3,000 temporary staff members. While these spreadsheets account for hourly wages, holiday pay, employer national insurance contributions, and agency margins, they notably omit any provisions for sick pay or pension funds. These payments are typically integrated into the “charge rate” that major brands pay to recruitment firms to secure temporary labor.
Experts suggest that the absence of these figures implies that workers may not be receiving their legal entitlements, might be discouraged from taking sick leave, or could be terminated before reaching the 12-week threshold required for pension enrollment. Zoë Lagadec, a principal at Mulberry’s employment law solicitors, noted that the data raises significant concerns regarding statutory sick pay compliance and potential efforts to avoid pension obligations by cycling through staff.
Withholding these benefits would likely constitute a breach of employment law by the recruitment agencies involved. Furthermore, such practices appear to conflict with industry guidance from the Association of Labour Providers, which warns that companies paying unrealistically low rates to labor providers may be complicit in worker exploitation or tax evasion.
Industry analysts have questioned whether recruitment agencies could remain profitable while paying DPD’s charge rates if they were also covering the full cost of sick pay and pension contributions for their thousands of employees. Under current regulations, statutory sick pay is a first-day entitlement, while pension contributions become mandatory after 12 weeks of service.
In response to the findings, DPD stated that its commercial agreements are benchmarked against industry competitors and designed to allow agencies to meet their statutory obligations. A company spokesperson emphasized that DPD takes its legal and ethical responsibilities seriously, noting that as the end-user client, it pays an agreed charge rate to third-party suppliers.
The company clarified that under UK law, recruitment agencies serve as the primary employers for these workers, meaning the responsibility for administering sick pay and auto-enrolment pensions rests with the agencies rather than DPD. The courier firm added that it continuously monitors its procurement processes to ensure that agency partners maintain high standards of compliance and fair treatment.
This scrutiny arrives as the temporary recruitment sector prepares for the oversight of the government’s new Fair Work Agency, which launched on April 7. This body consolidates several enforcement entities, including the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, the HMRC national minimum wage enforcement unit, and the Office of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement.
The emergence of these internal documents suggests that employment laws may have been breached by the recruitment agencies utilized by the courier company, prompting renewed focus on how the new Fair Work Agency will utilize its enforcement powers to protect temporary staff rights. The report also notes that zoë Lagadec, principal at Mulberry’s employment law solicitors, said: “This raises questions if the workers are receiving statutory sick pay – as it doesn’t make sense that nobody gets ill – or if they are being moved on. The report also notes that it says its team exceeds 15,000 people, operating more than 10,000 vehicles from 84 locations and delivering more than 260m parcels a year.
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