Mr S Ossai v Integrate Engineering Resources Ltd and 1 other — 2025

This was a two-day preliminary hearing before EJ Rice-Birchall at London South (by CVP) on 3 and 4 November 2025 to determine the claimant's employment status and whether the Tribunal had jurisdiction over his claims of direct race discrimination, race harassment, victimisation, whistleblowing detriment and unlawful deduction from wages against R1 (Integrate Engineering Resources Ltd, an employment business) and R2 (Tissot Industry (UK) Ltd). The claimant had worked as a Health and Safety Advisor on R2's engineering project on the Isle of Grain from 27 November 2023 to 18 January 2024 at a rate of £375 per day, paid via his limited company Epinots Group Ltd under a written Agreement signed on 30 November 2023 between R1 and Epinots.

The Tribunal found that the arrangement was a genuine tripartite arrangement between R2, R1 and Epinots, and that there was no basis for implying a contract between the claimant and either R1 or R2. The written Agreement provided for substitution, independent contractor status, payment by invoice to Epinots, and no entitlement to holiday or sickness pay, and the claimant had negotiated its terms on behalf of Epinots. The claimant was found to be in business on his own account through Epinots and therefore fell within the client/customer exception.

Applying the statutory definitions, the Tribunal held that the claimant was not an employee or worker of R1 or R2 under s.230(3) ERA 1996, not an employee under s.83 Equality Act 2010, not a contract worker under s.41 Equality Act 2010, and not within the extended worker definition in s.43K ERA 1996. The Tribunal therefore did not have jurisdiction to determine the claims, and the claim was dismissed.