Deliveroo couriers win share of £1m settlement: Deliveroo has paid out up to £1m in compensation to couriers who were denied basic employment rights. A total of 50 cyclists and moped riders are believed to have received up to £45,000 each in an out-of-court settlement. Lawyers for the couriers argued they should be classed as employees and not “self-employed suppliers”. Couriers are paid per delivery, but some are thought to have earned as little as £4 for a 12-hour shift after they had their share of deliveries slashed, reports Sky News. The settlement includes no admission of liability, according to a source close to Deliveroo, meaning it is not expected to change the self-employed status of the company’s army of riders. One insider familiar with the settlement said it would have “no direct impact on Deliveroo’s fleet of moped drivers and cyclists nor the company’s business model of using self-employed riders to deliver food”. It is, however, thought to be the first such case that Deliveroo has agreed to make payments in relation to, following a victory for the company in a similar claim last year. A source close to Deliveroo said the cost of the settlement was lower than the prospective legal costs to the company if the cases had run their course at the tribunal. The source said: “The company will continue to focus on providing the well-paid, flexible work that riders value. Courts have carefully considered Deliveroo’s model and concluded that riders working with the company are self-employed.” Deliveroo founder Will Shu recently announced permanent workers would be handed stock options worth an average of £5,000 as the prelude to a stock market flotation. The restaurant delivery app’s couriers, however, will not share in the windfall because of their self-employed status. Deliveroo was valued in excess of £1.5bn last year when it raised a new round of funding from the asset managers Fidelity and T Rowe Price. Shu, who founded Deliveroo in 2013, has expanded it to a dozen countries and overseen explosive revenue growth as consumers increasingly turn to the convenience of home delivery services.

Pret sees reusable cup usage increase by ten times since doubling discount: Pret A Manger chief executive Clive Schlee has said reusable cup usage at its stores has increased by ten times since doubling the discount to 50p. The company increased the discount at the start of the year to encourage more customers to bring reusable coffee cups into its stores. Writing on Twitter, Schlee said: “I’m happy to say reusable cup usage has increased ten times since we doubled our discount to 50p. That means you’ll save four million cups this year. Not bad!” Last month, Pret started a plastic bottle deposit and return trial in three Brighton shops. The company is accepting and recycling any plastic bottles taken into the outlets, with a 10p deposit returned when Pret-branded plastic bottles are given back.