Mr J Belgrave v Intercede 2052 Limited t/a Travelhire — 2020

Mr Belgrave started work for Intercede 2052 Ltd t/a Travelhire as a self-employed contractor in June 2015, and the tribunal accepted the respondent's case that he became an employee only on 1 February 2017. It rejected his case that he had employee status before that date. As a result, he did not have the two years' qualifying service needed for an ordinary unfair dismissal claim under s.94 and s.108 ERA 1996, and that claim failed.

The tribunal rejected the claimant's evidence that, during employment, he repeatedly asked for a written contract or raised breaches of the Working Time Regulations 1998. It found there was no written request and no convincing evidence that the issue had been raised during employment. It also found he did not work more than 48 hours per week and did take rest breaks. The tribunal treated the written-particulars and working-time points as an after-thought raised once the service issue had become apparent.

On the dismissal-related claims, the tribunal found that the reason for dismissal was the events of 8 and 9 November 2017 and the claimant's erratic behaviour over the preceding months, not any assertion of statutory rights or protected disclosures. It found that the email sent after dismissal on 14 November 2017, which raised written particulars and working-time issues, came too late to be the reason for dismissal. On the detriment allegations, it found there was no berating or humiliation, no substantive change to role, no need for a separate investigation on the facts found, and that monitoring of time-keeping was because the claimant's time-keeping was poor. All claims were dismissed, and because none succeeded the tribunal made no award under s.38 of the Employment Act 2002.