Miss L Reside- Robb v Breathe Therapies Eating Disorder Help & Wellbeing Services — 2021

The tribunal heard a preliminary issue on whether Miss L Reside-Robb was an employee or a worker of Breathe Therapies. It found that she had volunteered with SEED from December 2017 and that paid work for Breathe began no later than 8 November 2018, with a written self-employed contract signed on 15 November 2018. Although the paperwork described self-employment and the claimant carried out work that involved meetings, note-keeping on WriteUpp, and MDT input, the tribunal held that there was not the irreducible minimum of mutual obligation needed for employee status: Breathe was not obliged to offer work and the claimant was not obliged to accept it, and she controlled her availability and could refuse sessions.

On the tribunal's findings, the claimant undertook the work personally and the respondent was not a client or customer of a business she carried on on her own account. The tribunal found that she had been recruited by Ms Perry to work as part of Breathe's multidisciplinary team, that the clients were Breathe's clients, and that the requirements to attend meetings and provide notes reflected the regulated healthcare setting rather than a contract of employment. The judgment therefore held that she was not an employee under s.230(1) ERA 1996, but was a worker within s.230(3)(b) ERA 1996. The hearing was a preliminary hearing and no monetary remedy was awarded.