Mr M Rhodes v Sharpe’s Pottery Heritage and Arts Trust Limited Heard: via Cloud Video Platform in the Midlands (East) Region — 2021

The tribunal held that Mr Rhodes was engaged as a worker, not an employee. It found the real arrangement was a casual zero-hours relationship: the respondent was not obliged to offer work, he was not obliged to accept it, he worked only 11 weeks in 2019 and then did no work for about nine months, and he was free to work elsewhere. Applying the reality-based approach in Autoclenz, and the mutuality analysis in Ready Mixed Concrete, Carmichael and Windle, the tribunal concluded that the written document headed "Contract of Employment" did not reflect the true relationship.

On that basis, the tribunal held that it had no jurisdiction over the breach of contract and wrongful dismissal complaints, because those claims depended on employee status under Article 3 of the Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) Order 1994. It also found that the Job Security Policy was only a draft, had not been brought into force, applied to employees rather than casual workers, and was not part of the claimant's contract. The effective date of termination was 4 July 2020, as the claimant accepted and as the respondent's 29 June 2020 letter stated; the later P45 date was treated as an error.

The holiday pay claim failed. The tribunal held that the element relating to the period before 8 April 2020 was out of time, and in any event the claimant had already been paid all holiday accrued on the 12.07% basis used for casual workers. It found that £280.93 had been paid for holiday accrued from his 2019 work and that a further £130.86 had been paid in September 2020 in respect of furlough pay, making £411.79 in total, with no further sum due. The tribunal therefore dismissed the claims and rejected any further payment claim after 4 July 2020.