ADDISON LEE has been ordered to pay an estimated £200,000 in legal costs to drivers for providing false documents to an employment tribunal that ruled the 800-strong group should be classed as workers in January.

The private-hire and courier firm admitted shortly after court proceedings began that part of its case relied on an email that had been faked four years later.

It supposedly showed its chief operating officer telling drivers on July 8 2020 that they were to have the flexibility to choose their own hours and not be penalised for refusing work.

Employment Judge EJ Hyams ruled earlier this month that although the respondent “came clean” about the false document, “that did not undo the fact that that document was false and was relied on by the respondent as a key part of its case that sanctions were no longer imposed on drivers who refused jobs after 2017.

“I had no doubt that the respondent’s conduct in its defence of the claims of the claimants had been unreasonable. I also had no doubt that that conduct had led the claimants to incur costs which, if the conduct had not occurred, the claimants would not have incurred. 

“What had occurred here was an attempt to avoid the application of the decision in the Supreme Court in Uber.” 

The 2021 Supreme Court ruling in favour of Uber drivers has shaped much of the law in this area. The tribunal will consider compensation at a hearing in February.

Leigh Day, representing the drivers, will argue for backpay covering holiday pay and national minimum wage rights that drivers should have received during their time working for Addison Lee.