Ms M Nicholas v Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy — 2021

The claimant presented claims ticking race discrimination, sex discrimination and arrears of pay. The respondent denied that the claimant was or had been its employee or contractor and sought strike out on the basis that the claims disclosed no basis on which they could be pursued against it in the Employment Tribunal.

The claimant argued that the respondent was her covert or unseen employer because, in broad terms, its general and specific actions affected her employment by others, prevented her from obtaining employment, and interfered with other aspects of her life. The Tribunal recorded that her previous employers did not include the respondent and that she did not say she had entered into a contract with the respondent, or that she had been supplied by a third party to work for it.

The Tribunal held that the claimant had no reasonable prospect of showing she was an employee or worker of the respondent under the Employment Rights Act 1996, or an applicant, employee, contract worker, or otherwise within a relevant provision of the Equality Act 2010. It therefore found it would have no jurisdiction to determine the claims and struck them out.