Mr C Wooler v The Parochial Church Council of the Parish Church of St James and St Basil — 2023

The claimant brought a single claim of unfair dismissal against the Parochial Church Council of the Parish Church of St James and St Basil. The Tribunal held that the claimant had not accrued the qualifying two years' continuous employment needed to bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim. It found that the claimant started work under the employment contract on 1 December 2019 and that the effective date of termination was 28 November 2021, giving him less than two years' service.

In reaching that conclusion, the Tribunal distinguished between the earlier organ-playing arrangements and the later written contract sent in October 2019. It found that, before the written contract took effect, the claimant worked under a series of discrete engagements: he could choose whether to accept requests to play, the respondent was not obliged to offer him work, and the claimant was not under an ongoing obligation to accept it. On that basis, the pre-December 2019 arrangements were not contracts of service. The Tribunal also found that the additional work the claimant later took on, including choir-related work and organ maintenance issues, was done voluntarily and did not create contractual obligations before the written contract.

The Tribunal accepted that the parties entered into a contract of employment in late October 2019, subject to references and a DBS check, and that they agreed the claimant would start work under that contract on 1 December 2019. It rejected the claimant's case that his continuous employment began earlier, including by reference to work done in November 2019, because that work was done under the earlier non-employment arrangements and not under the later contract of employment. It also rejected the argument that the notice period was extended to 30 November 2021, finding that the reference to that date in the later letter was an error and that the effective date of termination remained 28 November 2021.

Applying sections 94, 97, 108, 210 to 212 and 230 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the Tribunal concluded that the claimant was continuously employed from 1 December 2019 to 28 November 2021, which was less than two years. The unfair dismissal claim was therefore dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.