Mrs M Lamb v Cordant People — 2020

Mrs M Lamb was employed as a cleaner under a September 2015 mobile worker agreement that stated she had no permanent place of work and that the respondent would endeavour to obtain assignments while promising a minimum of 336 hours’ work a year. She had worked at the respondent’s Newcastle branch since 2014. After the March 2020 lockdown, she stopped attending work because of COVID-19 concerns; the Newcastle branch closed on 25 March 2020 and permanent employees were made redundant.

The tribunal found that the claimant’s employment did not end when the Newcastle branch closed. No notice of termination had been given, and the respondent’s 11 June 2020 letter confirmed that she remained employed. Because the contract did not fix Newcastle as her place of work, the closure of that branch did not amount to redundancy for her. The tribunal also recorded that she was later offered a 20-hour assignment at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead, which she declined.

On the wages claim, the tribunal held that the respondent was not obliged to pay the claimant after her Newcastle assignment ended. It found that the contract only required the respondent to provide the minimum hours over the year, which it concluded was satisfied by the offer of further work at Gateshead. The tribunal further held that she was not entitled to furlough pay under the government scheme because, on the terms of the mobile worker agreement, she had no contractual right to pay for the later period. Both the redundancy payment claim and the unlawful deduction from wages claim were dismissed.