Ms L Crocombe v Equity Release Supermarket Ltd — 2024

At a preliminary hearing on 26 March and 24-25 April 2024, Employment Judge Slater found that Ms L Crocombe worked for Equity Release Supermarket Ltd from 28 January 2020 to 24 February 2022. The respondent ran an equity release advice business, paid a fixed fee of £995 for advice, and had first contracted with the claimant personally before moving the arrangement to her personal services company. The claimant also entered a loan agreement for £7,500 and signed a side letter on 24 March 2020 in which she undertook personally to procure performance by the consultant company and accepted restrictive covenants.

On the worker and Equality Act issue, the tribunal held that the second written contract with the PSC did not reflect the reality of the relationship. It found that the side letter showed a direct agreement between the claimant and the respondent for her personal services, that the substitution clause was conditional and in practice tightly limited, and that the respondent expected the claimant to be available for at least some regular leads. The tribunal therefore found that she was a worker within the Employment Rights Act 1996 and an employee for Equality Act 2010 purposes throughout the engagement.

On the Employment Rights Act employee test, however, the tribunal found that the relationship did not amount to a contract of employment. It held that mutuality of obligation was limited, the respondent exercised only limited control over how the claimant carried out the work, and the claimant provided her own equipment and paid a monthly fee for use of the respondent’s systems. The tribunal therefore found that she was not an employee within the ERA, so the unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal/breach of contract complaints were dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. The remaining complaints of disability discrimination, sex discrimination, victimisation, unlawful deductions from wages and holiday pay were listed to proceed to a final hearing in June 2024.