represented herself For the v Mr R Jones (director) — 2024

Miss Thornton worked for Multi Trades Training Limited from 4 May 2021, initially as a temporary Training Administrator supplied through Reed Specialist Recruitment Limited. She was pregnant when she started, and the respondent was aware of that from an early stage. In late August 2021 the parties moved to a separate arrangement under which she would provide administration services through her partner's business, supply staff to cover her maternity absence, and invoice the respondent at £21 an hour. The tribunal found that Mrs Evans and Mrs Kriel were recruited under that arrangement, and that the respondent paid the first two invoices but did not pay the later £750-per-recruit charges included on the 1 November 2021 invoice.

The tribunal held that the September to October 2021 arrangement was a genuine business-to-business arrangement, not a contract of employment and not a contract for personal service. It found that Miss Thornton worked largely autonomously from home, was not subject to the degree of control expected in employment, used her own equipment, and was expected to supply and manage other staff rather than provide the services personally. It therefore concluded that she was not an employee or worker of the respondent in respect of the self-employed arrangement, and was not an employee in the extended sense under the Equality Act 2010. It also held that she was not a contract worker for the period after 1 September 2021 because, for that arrangement, she was operating as her own business undertaking rather than being employed by another person.

On that basis, the tribunal dismissed the automatic unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, breach of contract and alternative unauthorised deduction from wages claims for lack of jurisdiction. It also dismissed the pregnancy and maternity discrimination complaint under both section 39 and section 41 of the Equality Act 2010. The tribunal accepted that Miss Thornton had been a contract worker while assigned to the respondent by Reed up to 15 October 2021, but the 31 October 2021 termination ended the separate self-employed arrangement, not the agency assignment. No monetary award was made.