10 June 2019 Respondent’s Rebuttal to Submissions: 18 June 2019 Claimant’s Response to the Respondent’s Rebuttal: 19 June 2019 In Chambers: 24 June 2019 v 5 June 2019 From the — 2017

This was a preliminary hearing on employment status. The tribunal found that before 1 July 2017 the claimant worked for East Anglian Air Ambulance as a locum on an ad hoc basis: he submitted monthly availability, could accept or decline shifts, could arrange cover with another accepted locum, invoiced for each shift, and was paid gross without tax or national insurance deductions. The tribunal also relied on the claimant's own emails, including his description of himself as self-employed and his reference to not being technically employed by EAAA.

The tribunal accepted that the position changed from 1 July 2017, when the claimant became an employed PHEM Consultant. From that point he was on payroll, subject to tax and national insurance deductions, required to request leave, entitled to holiday pay and sick pay, and subject to the respondent's employment processes, including induction, consultants' meetings and contractual hours. Those features were relevant to the later employment relationship, but they did not alter the earlier locum arrangement.

Applying section 230 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the Readymix Concrete conditions and the factors discussed in Quashie v Stringfellows, the tribunal held that there was no sufficient mutuality of obligation or control before July 2017 to create a contract of service. It concluded that the claimant was a self-employed locum before July 2017 and therefore had not been an employee for the period relied on for unfair dismissal protection. The unfair dismissal claim therefore failed at the preliminary stage, and no monetary award was made.