“SCROOGE” bosses at controversial parcels firm Hermes are demanding that their workers deliver presents for 21 days on the trot, according to general union GMB.

Hermes’s lifestyle couriers division delivers for retailers including Amazon, Next Directory and M&M Direct.

The company has already faced controversy after being accused of “bogus self-employment” and was blasted in a report by Labour MP Frank Field.

The GMB, which organises Hermes workers, said that the company is acting like Charles Dickens’s Ebenezer Scrooge in denying workers a single day off over a three-week period.

The union has written to the company saying that its demand is in breach of health and safety laws.

GMB national officer Mick Rix said: “Hermes has again taken the ‘ho ho’ out of their lifestyle couriers’ Christmases.

“The company has stated at two MP select committee hearings in 2017 that they have cover couriers. Yet the reality could not be different.

“If a lifestyle courier objects or cannot provide their own cover, they are told by their Hermes field managers they will be penalised by having work withdrawn from them.”

Mr Field said: “I thought only Father Christmas and his reindeer had to work compulsorily full time over Christmas, not 'self-employed' workers.”

It is not the first time the company has been accused of such practices.

The Star exclusively revealed in March 2015 that Hermes had threatened to ditch workers who did not comply with a late demand that they work on Easter Monday for the first time ever.

Hermes did not respond to requests for comment.