Miss A Towers (C1) Miss P Milton (C2) AND v Care Match UK Elite Staffing Ltd (in creditors voluntary liquidation) and 1 other — 2025

The tribunal considered consolidated claims by Miss Towers and Miss Milton against Care Match UK Elite Staffing Ltd (in creditors voluntary liquidation) and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade. R1 did not attend. R2 accepted that R1 was insolvent but disputed that the claimants were employees. C2 had withdrawn her redundancy payment claim at a preliminary hearing on 8 January 2025 and did not pursue notice pay, leaving her final live claim as holiday pay.

Applying the employee-status authorities, including the Ready Mixed Concrete 'irreducible core' of personal service, mutuality of obligation and control, the tribunal found that both claimants worked under contracts of employment within s.230 ERA 1996. It relied on the written terms, which referred to employment, minimum hours, absence reporting, notice, uniforms, benefits and holiday pay, together with the payslips and oral evidence. The tribunal found that the claimants were required to provide their personal services to R1's clients on R1's behalf, were paid through PAYE, were subject to R1's line management, and were controlled by R1 rather than the client sites.

On remedy, the tribunal held that Miss Towers was entitled to a redundancy payment of £942 gross under s.166 ERA 1996. It also found that she was owed £471 gross for one week's statutory notice pay and £393.24 gross for 5.4 days' accrued but untaken holiday pay, making a further s.182/s.184 award of £864.24 gross. Miss Milton was awarded £1,713.73 gross for accrued holiday pay, representing 149.72 hours or 4.16 weeks at 36 hours per week, which the tribunal accepted had not in fact been paid. The combined monetary award recorded by the judgment is £3,519.97 gross.