Miss M Watters v Dominvs Group Limited — 2021

Miss M Watters brought Equality Act complaints against Dominvs Group Ltd arising from a contract that began on 2 December 2019 and ended on 17 February 2020. At the open preliminary hearing on 17 February 2021, Employment Judge Henderson, sitting alone, decided the respondent's jurisdiction objection. The claimant said the arrangement was employment and that it ended after she told RA she had been diagnosed with pre-cancerous cells in her breast; the respondent said she was a self-employed consultant.

The tribunal found that the contemporaneous emails, the signed consultancy agreement and the invoicing arrangements pointed to a business venture and a consultancy rather than an employment relationship. It accepted that the agreement described the claimant and K&M Ventures Ltd as independent contractors, allowed substitution, imposed personal liability and was consistent with invoices being raised through K&M. The claimant's evidence that she believed the agreement was really a contract of employment as a PA was not accepted.

Applying section 41 and section 83(2)(a) of the Equality Act 2010, and referring to Autoclenz, Windle and Uber, the tribunal held that the claimant was an independent provider of services and not in a relationship of subordination with the respondent. It also held that she was not a contract worker because she was not employed by K&M Ventures Ltd and supplied by that company. The result was that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to hear the disability discrimination/harassment claims, and the June 2021 final hearing was vacated.