Mrs Christine Bonner v CD Gray & Associates Ltd (First Respondent) and Mr Tony Venn (Second Respondent) — 2019

At the preliminary hearing on 13 May 2019, the tribunal considered the claimant's employment status. It accepted that Mrs Christine Bonner had worked for CD Gray & Associates Ltd as a part-time secretary from 30 August 2005, that employee status was undisputed until June 2015, and that in June 2015 she resigned proposing to continue as a freelance credit controller at a daily rate of £150.

Although the parties then proceeded on a freelance label from 1 July 2015, with invoices, self-assessment, and no holiday pay, sick pay or pension contributions, the tribunal found the reality did not change into self-employment. It found mutuality of obligation, personal service, no realistic right of substitution, significant control by Mr Christopher Gray over the work performed, and an expectation that the claimant would work at least four days a week and notify him of absences or changes.

The tribunal also found that the claimant remained integrated into the first respondent's business, using its offices, email address, meetings and staff activities, and that the splitting of invoices between CD Gray and Terra Firma was a broad-brush allocation rather than a separate freelance business. It held that the claimant was an employee of the first respondent throughout, including when carrying out Terra Firma work, and listed a further case management preliminary hearing for the substantive claims, which were not determined in this judgment.