In person v Ms Tattersall a Solicitor — 2019

The tribunal rejected the existence of a single global or umbrella contract running from November 2011 to December 2018. It found instead that the claimant worked through the University job shop under a succession of individual fixed-term contracts for each assignment. In reaching that conclusion, it relied on the practical features of the assignments: induction and training at the start of each placement, supervision and control by line managers, set hours, no right to send a substitute, PAYE payroll treatment, a pension scheme, and integration into the department where she was placed.

On continuity, the tribunal held that the relevant period for the regulations 8 and 9 claim was 14 December 2014 to 13 December 2018. It accepted that the claimant had back-to-back assignments from 9 February 2015 to 31 December 2018 with only short breaks in October 2015 and March 2018, and it treated those shorter gaps as temporary cessations of work under section 212(3)(b) ERA 1996. However, it found that the claimant had not shown any job shop assignment before 9 February 2015, there was a clear gap from November 2014 to February 2015, and the 70-day break in May 2018 was too long to count as a temporary cessation of work.

The regulations 8 and 9 claim therefore failed because the claimant could not establish four years' continuous employment. The tribunal also found that, as at about 13 December 2018, she was employed under a fixed-term contract running from 1 October 2018 to 31 December 2018, and that she had been employed under a series of fixed-term contracts from 9 February 2015 to 31 December 2018, although continuity was broken in May 2018. The race discrimination complaint was withdrawn by consent, and the regulation 6 detriment claim and regulation 3 holiday pay claim survived to the substantive hearing because they did not require a minimum period of service.