- IN PERSON FOR THE v - Mr Abid Ayoubi — 2021

The parties agreed that the claimant had not been provided with a written contract, that she worked on a zero-hours basis delivering for the respondent as required, that she was paid £3.50 per delivery, that she worked between 25 April 2020 and 25 June 2020, and that the amounts paid by the respondent were correctly set out in the material before the tribunal. They also agreed that there were no unpaid sums for work actually carried out in that period.

The unfair dismissal claim was dismissed for want of jurisdiction. The tribunal held that, even if the engagement was a contract of employment within s.230 Employment Rights Act 1996, the claimant did not have two years' continuous service. The tribunal noted that the date of termination may have been 25 June 2020, when she was last given work, or 29 December 2020, when she said she was told the contract had ended; on either basis the tribunal had no jurisdiction to hear the claim. As a result, the compensation sought for unfair dismissal could not be awarded.

The unlawful deduction from wages claim was dismissed because the agreed figures showed that the claimant had been paid correctly for the work done and nothing remained owing for that period. The tribunal also accepted the agreed contractual terms, including that there was no guaranteed minimum or maximum number of deliveries, so there was no basis for any deduction claim after 25 June 2020.

The claim for failure to provide written particulars of employment was also dismissed. The tribunal accepted that no written contract had been supplied, but held that the claimant was at most a limb (b) worker and, given the absence of mutuality of obligation, was not an employee for the purposes of s.1 ERA 1996. The tribunal also recorded that it could not have made any compensation award under s.38 TULR(C)A 1992 in the absence of another successful claim. The tribunal further noted, without jurisdiction to determine them, the claimant's points about tax records and the NEST pension, and recorded the payment amounts agreed between the parties.