Exploitative Corporations on Trial: Why 7,000 Just Eat Couriers Are Fighting for the Rights They’ve Been Denied for Years

June 16, 2026July 14, 2026 admin Corporations

This article is based on an email sent to Leigh Day clients today, 16 June 2026.

A landmark legal battle that could force companies to stop dodging their most basic obligations has just concluded its most crucial stage. In an employment status hearing that ran from 5 May to 1 June 2026, law firm Leigh Day argued before an employment tribunal that over 7,000 Just Eat couriers in England, Wales, and Scotland are not the self-employed independent contractors the company claims they are, but workers or employees entitled to fundamental protections — the national minimum wage, paid holiday, and a written employment contract.

This case is not about being against modern, flexible ways of working. It is about a single, powerful corporation choosing to misclassify its workforce in order to boost its bottom line. It represents one of the largest coordinated claims ever brought against a company that has systematically outsourced risk onto the people who make its profits possible while denying them the workplace rights that are supposed to be non-negotiable in a decent society.

Exploitation Built Into the System: How the UK’s Supply Chain Depends on Migrant Abuse

April 19, 2026April 19, 2026 admin Corporations

In the shadows of Britain's supermarket shelves, high street fashion rails, and construction sites lies an uncomfortable truth: the UK economy is propped up by a global system of migrant worker exploitation. In 2025 alone, the Business and Human Rights Centre (BHRC) recorded 747 cases of alleged abuse of migrant workers worldwide, spanning nearly every key sector and region.

These were not isolated incidents but symptoms of a business model that channels immense profits to multinationals headquartered in wealthy nations while extracting labour from the world's most marginalised people.

Marketing and Mortality: How Nestlé’s Fake Experts in Africa Led to Infant Deaths

March 16, 2026March 16, 2026 admin Corporations

The intersection of corporate profit and public health has few starker examples than Nestlé's decades-long marketing of infant formula in Africa. From the 1970s to present-day controversies, the Swiss multinational has employed deceptive practices — including fake experts and misleading health claims — that have contributed to hundreds of thousands of infant deaths.

This tragic history, from the "milk nurses" of the past to modern double standards in product formulation, offers critical lessons about the dangers of allowing marketing to masquerade as medicine.

Boardroom Machiavelli: The Unspoken Corporate Playbook

January 15, 2026January 15, 2026 admin Corporations, Leadership

In the hallowed halls of modern corporations, between glossy sustainability reports and corporate mission statements, a colder, older philosophy often pulses through strategic decisions. Its source is a 16th-century Italian diplomat whose name became synonymous with cunning statecraft: Niccolò Machiavelli.

To understand his enduring influence, one must know his context. Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a keen observer of political chaos. Living in a fractured Italy dominated by warring city-states, foreign invasions, and corrupt popes, he witnessed power in its rawest form. After a career serving the Florentine Republic, he was exiled when the Medici family returned to power. It was in this forced retirement that he wrote Il Principe (The Prince) in 1513. Far from a dry theory, the book was a pragmatic, almost clinical manual for a new ruler on how to acquire and maintain power in a dangerous, unstable world. He famously separated political efficacy from religious or personal morality, arguing that what makes a leader successful is not always what makes them good.

Rockstar Games Layoffs to Be Investigated by UK Parliament Over Union-Busting Claims

December 14, 2025July 7, 2026 admin Corporations, Unfair Dismissal, Unions

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said Parliament will investigate union-busting allegations against Rockstar Games, following the studio's dismissal of 31 Grand Theft Auto 6 developers in October.

The issue was raised in Parliament on December 10 by local MP, Chris Murray. He informed the Prime Minister: "The video games company Rockstar in my constituency last month fired 31 employees without providing evidence or union representation. The [Independent Workers Union of Great Britain] IWGB alleges union busting."