There are to be sporadic walkouts of delivery drivers at DPD over Cyber Weekend. The industrial action cannot be supported by the GMB union owing to UK trade union laws regarding self employed staff on walkouts.

The strike action follows DPD reducing the piece rate of parcels that they must deliver this weekend and news that if couriers did not turn up for shifts they may not be selected for future work for the company.

Couriers at DPD’s Cambuslang depot in Glasgow announced they would have a mass walkout, originally supported by the GMB union but the delivery firm’s lawyers wrote to the GMB saying that the company would hold the union liable for losses arising during the busiest delivery period of the year if it continued to encourage the action. DPD said that the GMB was trying to breach the agreements with franchisee drivers “with the intent to cause significant financial loss to the company. You are well aware that December is the busiest month of the year for our client,” the lawyers said.

Nevertheless with union support or not there are set to be walkouts at several DPD depots across the UK and this is set to hit its delivery plans during what is set to be the busiest Cyber Weekend in UK history. It is believed that some £1.5 billion in online sales are set to be made and this will impact the last mile delivery industry which has been planning for the shopping event for many months.

It is not known at the time of writing just what impact the strike action has had on the company though this will pan out in the next few days.