Uber fall-out: NZ Post faces legal action from six workers claiming employment status
Wednesday, 3 December 2025
NZ Post chairperson Dame Paula Rebstock told MPs it is facing legal challenges from courier drivers who are claiming that they — like Uber drivers — should have been entitled to employment benefits when making deliveries for the company.
The state-owned enterprise has previously paid off a driver to prevent an Uber-like test case going to court. NZ Post chief executive David Walsh would not comment on whether it might pursue the same tactic again.
Postal Workers Union (PWUA) spokesperson John Maynard said it was assisting six drivers who were taking a case that is set down to be heard by Employment Court in Wellington in May.
If successful the legal action could open the door for thousands of couriers who have worked as supposedly self-employed couriers for NZ Post over recent decades, including former CourierPost drivers, to make backdated claims for holiday pay, sick leave, the minimum wage, KiwiSaver contributions, and potentially other costs, he said.
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Maynard said NZ Post was in the same situation as Uber, in that if the court ruled the drivers were employees, it would not be possible for the company to argue that others on the same contracts weren’t.
The liability could add up to many tens of millions of dollars, he agreed.
“It is big money. It's quite a substantial amount of money that we're talking about here for each of the contractors.
“There is also the business of the painting of their vans. They spend $7000 or $8000 painting their vans. Employees don't have to provide their own work materials.”
The Government is progressing legislation that would block many gig economy workers from claiming employment rights for work done in future, but that would not affect their entitlement to any benefits for work done before the law change took effect.
Appearing in front of a parliamentary select committee and facing questions from Labour commerce spokesperson Arena Williams, Rebstock said NZ Post had not so far recognised any contingent liability for an adverse court ruling in its accounts, but made clear it would consider whether to do so in its future accounts.
Its last accounts had been prepared before the Supreme Court handed down its Uber ruling that upheld four of its drivers were employees, she noted.
Employment Court records show NZ Post avoided a previous test case in February by entering into a confidential settlement with one of two drivers who had brought a similar action.
Maynard said NZ Post had “chased” one of the drivers for three months before finally persuading him to accept an out-of-court settlement to drop his claim.
Maynard said the driver in question initially called the union and asked “how do I stop these people hassling me with this offer of money?”.
“He told me he’d blocked their number. They then started pursuing him through a lawyer, and the Friday afternoon before the court case they reached a settlement with him, and the word that he’s put around was it was a substantial amount.”
The PWUA decided not to continue the action with just one driver as it wanted the ruling to provide a comprehensive precedent for courier workers who were in different situations, he said.
“You’ve got couriers who are directly engaged with the company. You’ve got others who are directly engaged as a courier and employ others as well. And so we wanted to have a range of options put before the court to declare that these people are all, in fact, employees.”
Walsh declined to comment on the ethics of NZ Post confidentially settling the claim.
“Ultimately, that’s an important decision that as a commercial organisation you have to work your way through. Clearly, it’s a confidential settlement, so there's not really much I can add,” he told The Post.
Williams said it was critical state-owned enterprises were “honourable employers”.
Maynard said the union believed NZ Post courier drivers had an even stronger claim to employment status than Uber drivers.
“Uber drivers don't wear uniforms and don’t have markings on their cars, and the couriers do. Any disinterested observer would take these workers to be employees of NZ Post, which is one of the tests.
“There’s no partnership there. It is absolutely controlled by the company.”
Walsh declined to comment on whether there were any specific facts to its arrangements with drivers that were more in NZ Post’s favour.
“It's a process going through the courts. We’ve just got to respect that process.
“At this stage, we’ll just let the courts do their processing and of course we'll anticipate and respect whatever comes out of that process,” he said.