Delivery service Evri has chosen a master trust for more than 12,000 ‘self-employed plus’ couriers who will start to have a workplace pension. While more gig economy workers receive a pension following last year’s Uber judgment, many still do not. 

 

In March this year, the courier service, formerly known as Hermes UK, said it had reached a deal with the GMB union which meant all 20,000 ‘self-employed plus’ couriers would be auto-enrolled into a pension by the end of the year. Evri did not say why fewer workers than originally planned will join its scheme. mallowstreet has contacted it for a response.

   

     

Couriers will be enrolled into the Smart Pension Master Trust by the end of 2022. Under the agreement, couriers will also be able to continue to manage their savings beyond retirement. 

 

Conor Ormsby, Evri’s director of delivery, said the company was pleased to choose Smart after “a long and diligent process”. 

 

“When we first announced our SE+ model in 2019 we committed to continuing to develop our support for our self-employed couriers and we are proud to have been true to that and be leading the industry once again. Our couriers receive guaranteed pay rates, paid holiday and now a pension but have also been able to retain the flexibility that so many treasure,” he said. 

 

Smart’s pension offering is now available to around a million members. “We are delighted to be appointed by a household name such as Evri,” said Jamie Fiveash, chief executive of Smart UK, adding: “Evri’s self-employed plus couriers will now have access to an award-winning pension scheme, including Smart Retire and a number of other financial wellbeing offerings.” 

 

The gig economy has come into focus again as the Work and Pensions Committee heard that many gig economy firms do not auto-enrol their workforce, despite a Supreme Court judgment against ride-hailing app Uber in March 2021 requiring the gig firm to treat all UK drivers as workers. Unlike self-employed people, worker status gives the right to a pension and paid leave, while falling short of full employee status. 

   

   

In a subsequent hearing by the committee on 6 July, pensions minister Guy Opperman would not say whether he thought gig firms needed to be encouraged to enrol workers that have a right to a pension given many are still not doing so.  

 

He said it was for the Pensions Regulator to enforce the rules where breaches are reported.

Opperman also argued that all employment contracts are different: "I keep coming back to your definitions in your individual employee contract. As a former lawyer, that will always be my start point because that is the negotiation that has gone on between the two parties involved." 

 

He added: “Even if they are self-employed, it does not mean to say they have slipped through the net... They can apply and they can join, as many do, Nest or alternative providers. It is not the case that they are utterly denied this, it is just that they are going to be the ones organising it. That is the point." 

The government does not intend “to do wholesale regulation from a DWP point of view of self-employed at the present stage”, Opperman said.