More than 7,000 Just Eat couriers are taking legal action against the food delivery company in an attempt to gain better employment rights including the minimum wage and holiday pay.

The employment tribunal, which begins on Tuesday and is set to run until 2 June, will determine if the couriers are classed as workers, a status that comes with improved rights, or self-employed independent contractors.

Judgment is expected later in 2026.

Just Eat dismissed about 1,700 couriers in the UK in 2023 when it returned to a gig economy model and scrapped an experiment that offered guaranteed minimum pay, sick pay and holiday pay in six cities in the UK and Europe.

Under its “Scoober” experiment, couriers who Just Eat said handled less than 5% of UK orders at the time and also worked set shifts, were provided with e-bikes or e-mopeds and had the option to operate from a central hub, where they could pick up equipment and take breaks.

A Just Eat spokesperson said: “In the UK, Just Eat partners with over 70,000 self-employed couriers who choose to work with us for the flexibility and freedom that we offer. When and how often couriers deliver from our restaurant, retail and grocery partners is up to them, and is reflective of their status as self-employed contractors.”

The Just Eat couriers’ legal challenge is being led by Leigh Day, the law firm that last year led a successful employment tribunal action by Addison Lee drivers for rights including holiday pay and the national minimum wage.

This followed a 2024 ruling in favour of Bolt drivers and a 2021 supreme court decision backing improved rights for drivers working with the taxi app Uber.

The UK government last month set up the Fair Work Agency (FWA) with the aim of improving oversight of employment rights.

A report for the new body identified the gig economy, alongside construction and social care, as a high-risk area in which workers “often experience precarious conditions, systemic barriers to redress”.

Currently HMRC has powers to enforce the national minimum wage and will continue to do so until those powers are absorbed by the FWA in 2027.

Nigel Mackay, Leigh Day’s joint head of employment and discrimination, said: “Whilst we might hope that the new agency will be more willing to challenge gig economy operators, it may be that, as is often the case now, individuals will first need to bring a tribunal claim to show that they are a worker and therefore entitled to the national minimum wage, before enforcement takes place.”

The government has promised to consult on simplifying the various levels of employment status – from employee, which gives full rights to all legal protections, to worker status, which has limited protection, and self-employed, for which there is almost none.

Campaigners say the lack of clarity has led to people being falsely classified as self-employed.

A government consultation on changing the system was expected early this year but it is understood there is still no set date for its launch.

New legislation under the Employment Rights Act, which came into force last month, has improved a number of conditions for employees and workers but does not appear to have been published.

Just Eat said: “We support the government’s intentions to reform the UK’s current employment framework and see this as an opportunity to recognise the tech-enabled work that we, and other platform businesses, offer today.”

Just East was bought by the South African-owned internet investor Prosus for €4.1bn in early 2025.