Mr P Nechita v Epidaurus Limited — 2021

By a decision sent on 18 February 2021, Employment Judge Russell dealt with a preliminary issue of worker status and jurisdiction after the Respondent argued that Mr Nechita was self-employed and outside the relevant legislation. The judgment also records that at an earlier preliminary hearing on 29 October 2020, the claims for notice pay, unfair dismissal and redundancy payment had been dismissed because the Claimant did not have sufficient continuity of employment.

The Tribunal accepted Mr Nechita's evidence that he first worked a five-and-a-half-hour shift for the Respondent through Brigad on 6 February 2020 and was paid £56.61. It also accepted that, after a conversation with the restaurant manager Katerina, he was offered further work directly as a kitchen porter from 3 March 2020, on shifts from 9.00am to 9.00pm at £8.72 an hour. The Judge found that the Claimant provided his personal bank details and National Insurance number, that no written contract was produced, that no invoices were issued by Petrica Personnel Cleaning Company Limited, and that the Respondent produced no evidence of payment to that company. An email exchange referring to the Claimant as self-employed was treated as consistent with his evidence that any self-employment was only in relation to cleaning services.

On that evidence, the Tribunal found that the kitchen-porter work was performed under a direct oral contract with the Respondent, that the Respondent was not the client or customer of a business carried on by the Claimant, and that he was a worker for the purposes of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the Equality Act 2010. The Tribunal therefore had jurisdiction over the remaining claims, including breach of contract, holiday pay, unauthorised deductions from wages and race discrimination. No monetary remedy was awarded in this decision. The race discrimination complaint was not yet particularised, so the Claimant was ordered to provide further information by 19 March 2021, with a further telephone preliminary hearing to follow; the final hearing was listed for 3, 4 and 5 November 2021.