In person For the v Respondent — 2021

This was a preliminary hearing to determine employment status. The claimant brought claims for unfair dismissal and unlawful deduction from wages. The tribunal found that she worked through a series of third-party payroll companies after choosing a limited-company style arrangement, first through Crystal Clear Contract Services Limited, then through Get My Payslip and its subsidiary companies. The respondent was an employment business supplying workers to CBRE, and the tribunal found that the claimant’s work was provided to CBRE rather than to the respondent.

Applying the Ready Mixed Concrete and Autoclenz approach, together with the statutory definition in section 230 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the tribunal concluded that the claimant was not employed by the respondent. It found there was no obligation on the respondent to offer work, no corresponding obligation on the claimant to accept work, and no sufficient day-to-day control by the respondent. The tribunal preferred the evidence of Ms Walsh on the extent of contact between the claimant and the respondent and found that any control over the claimant while at CBRE was exercised by CBRE, not by the respondent.

The tribunal also rejected the suggestion that a contract of employment should be implied between the parties. It held that the facts made it inappropriate to imply such a contract. For the same reasons, it found that the claimant was not a worker of the respondent because there was no contract under which she undertook to provide services personally to the respondent. As a result, both claims were dismissed and no remedy was awarded.