Mrs Rashmi Dengri v Star Kids Club Ltd — 2023

The tribunal was asked to decide a single preliminary issue: the status of Mrs Rashmi Dengri under section 230 Employment Rights Act 1996. It found that she was both an employee and a worker of Star Kids Club Ltd. The judge accepted that the 2 February 2020 letter referred to an offer of employment, that the 3 March 2020 assignment agreement was signed by the claimant believing it to be her terms and conditions, and that the contractual labels used by the respondent did not reflect the reality of the arrangement.

In reaching that conclusion, the tribunal found that the claimant was required to provide her work personally, with no contractual right of substitution in the documents seen and no substitution in practice. It also found significant control by the respondent over rota, attendance, breaks, rooms worked in, key worker allocation, and holiday approval. Other factors pointed in the same direction: the claimant was paid monthly without invoices, deducted at source, had no financial risk, provided no equipment, and the arrangement was terminable on notice.

The tribunal also found mutuality of obligation. It accepted that the respondent committed to offer at least 15 hours per week and that, in practice and under the contract, the claimant agreed to work those hours. The judge treated the temporary nursery closure during April and May 2020, and the claimant's month in India in November 2021, as not displacing the overall pattern of obligation. A further preliminary hearing was to be listed for case management through to final hearing; no substantive claims or remedy were determined in this judgment.