The delivery company DPD is being sued over the death of a driver who collapsed after he missed hospital appointments because he feared the company’s practice of charging drivers £150 for missing work.

The widow of Don Lane is demanding compensation from the firm which delivers parcels for retailers including Marks and Spencer and John Lewis.

Lane, who had diabetes, died suddenly in January from the disease. DPD charged him £150 when he attended one specialist renal appointment and he then missed others. He collapsed twice during rounds, including once while driving.

Ruth Lane has lodged a claim at the employment tribunal in Bristol which alleges that Lane was ill and vomiting blood but attended work due to his fear of being fined for failing to attend work without permission. He completed his route but collapsed with a heart attack when he got home and died shortly afterwards in hospital.

The claim also highlights the pressure Lane faced from DPD’s system of allocating short windows for each delivery which give customers certainty about when parcels will arrive.

Lane’s death was raised in parliament where both Labour and Conservatives reacted with outrage. It led to DPD promising to scrap the £150 charges and offering couriers sick pay. The company made £110m profit in the UK in 2016.

Ruth Lane alleges her husband was bogusly self-employed and should have been classed as an employee with access to sick pay, holiday pay and the minimum wage. If the employment tribunal rules in her favour, DPD could be forced to change its entire business model which relies on self-employed couriers, which it describes as franchisees, being paid per parcel.

A similar claim of bogus self-employment was upheld in the employment tribunal against the minicab firm Uber in 2017.

Ruth Lane also alleges that DPD breached the Equalities Act by not adjusting its procedures to accommodate Lane’s health condition.

Her claim, on behalf of her husband’s estate and filed by the solicitors Leigh Day, states: “DPD’s refusal to give permission for the claimant to take time off to attend these appointments meant that his disability was not properly monitored and that he did not have the opportunity to receive the appropriate treatments for his disability and related conditions, ultimately resulting in his death.”

It also says Lane was given a rural route with long drives between stops, when he should have been given a more urban route with shorter stops to allow him to take more regular breaks and buy food.

Lane collapsed twice at work with hypoglycemia, the first time at the wheel of his van, after which he was taken to hospital, the claim states. After the second collapse, three months before his death, his wife confronted his manager, Matt Poore.

She complained that Lane’s route had not been changed despite his repeated requests. When Poore denied this, Ruth said other drivers had been given new routes which were local and less demanding, which Poore also denied.

She pointed out that he needed regular meal breaks to maintain his blood sugar levels and Poore said this would be possible. However, the claim says, Lane and other DPD couriers started working to a system known by them as “precise”, which introduced shorter delivery windows that could not be changed by the driver.

Lane often struggled to meet the required timeframes and complete all his deliveries. He was told he could be “breached” for missing slots and that three breaches could result in dismissal.

A spokesman for DPD said the company was “unable to comment on any potential employment tribunal matters”.

He said drivers would be able to apply for a worker contract, rather than self-employment, from later this month. The contract would be for an average £28,800 per annum, based on a five-day week, with 28 days’ paid holiday, a pension and sick pay.