Case 3201452/2020 · Employment Tribunal
Jason Lutz v Ryanair DAC and 1 other — 2022
- Case reference
- 3201452/2020
- Decision date
- 5 April 2022
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Housego Representation
- Venue
- East London Hearing Centre
Parties
3 namedClaimant
Jason Lutz
Respondents
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThis was a preliminary status judgment about Jason Lutz's work as a Ryanair first officer. The tribunal found that he was a crew member within regulation 3 of the Civil Aviation (Working Time) Regulations 2004, that he fell within the EU Charter's Article 31 working-time protection, and that the relevant civil aviation working-time protections applied to him.
On the agency-worker issue, the tribunal found that MCG Aviation Limited supplied him to Ryanair. It rejected the respondents' case that he was in business on his own account, finding that the assignment was for a fixed five-year term and therefore temporary, that he had to perform the work personally, and that any substitution right was tightly limited to swapping shifts with other Ryanair pilots and was not an unfettered right.
The tribunal also found that the arrangements were dictated by Ryanair and MCG, including the selection of accountants and the service-company structure, and that the opt-out from the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations 2003 was not an informed choice and was ineffective. It concluded that the claimant was not excluded by regulation 3(2) because neither MCG nor Ryanair was the client or customer of a business carried on by him. All preliminary issues were resolved in the claimant's favour, and no monetary award was determined in this judgment.
Claims and outcomes
2 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Working time regulations | Preliminary status finding: the tribunal held the claimant was a crew member within regulation 3 of the Civil Aviation (Working Time) Regulations 2004 and a worker for the purposes of Article 31 of the EU Charter; it found the working-time protections applied. No monetary remedy was determined in this judgment. | Upheld | — | — |
| Agency worker regulations | Preliminary status finding under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010: the tribunal held the claimant was supplied by MCG to work temporarily for and under the supervision and direction of Ryanair, had a contract to perform work personally, was not in business on his own account, and was not excluded by regulation 3(2). No monetary remedy was determined in this judgment. | Upheld | — | — |
Legal tests applied
8 references- Uber BV & Ors v Aslam & Ors
- Pimlico Plumbers Ltd & Anor v Smith
- Stuart Delivery Ltd v Augustine
- Allonby v Accrington & Rossendale College
- Moran & Ors v Ideal Cleaning Services Ltd & Anor
- Brooknight Guarding Ltd v Matei
- Angard Staffing Solutions Ltd & Anor v Kocur & Ors
- Max Planck v Shimizu
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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