Father Kosmas Pavlidis v The Trustees of the Greek Orthodox Community in Birmingham — 2019

At a preliminary hearing on 17 and 18 April 2019, Father Kosmas Pavlidis challenged the ending of his Birmingham posting and said it amounted to unfair dismissal, race discrimination, redundancy-related losses, holiday pay and other payments. The tribunal treated the case as a status question: whether he was an employee, worker or officeholder of the respondent trustees.

The tribunal found that the claimant was a Greek Orthodox priest who had been seconded from the Church of Greece to Birmingham in June 2008 and that, throughout the secondment, he remained a civil servant and employee of the Greek state. It accepted that he received a stipend from the community, accommodation and the use of a car, but held that the appointment was governed by the Church of Greece's secondment arrangements and the Fourth Article of the Articles of Association, not by any express or implied contract with the respondent.

After considering the evidence and authorities including Autoclenz, Percy, Sharpe and Preston, the tribunal rejected the argument that the relationship changed in 2014. It found that the claimant's additional activities for the congregation were consistent with his office as Head Priest and did not show control by the respondent. The tribunal held that there was no contract between the parties, that the claimant was not a worker, and that he was not an officeholder of the respondent; on that basis it found that it had no jurisdiction to entertain the complaints and dismissed them.