Mr A Higgins v University of St Andrews — 2020

At a preliminary hearing in the conjoined claims of Mr A Higgins and Mr G E Villiers against the University of St Andrews, the tribunal addressed only employment status. Mr Villiers claimed arrears of pay on the basis that he was a worker who had been paid below the National Minimum Wage, and Mr Higgins claimed unfair dismissal after being excluded from university sports facilities.

The tribunal found that the St Andrews Jujitsu Club was an unincorporated voluntary association separate from the university and the Athletic Union. It accepted that the club committee chose the claimants as coaches, that the university took no part in that engagement, and that any payments were made by the club or, in 2012-13, through a university grant system used for tax and accounting purposes. It accepted the respondent's evidence that the payments recorded as being from the university included a December 2012 payment to Mr Villiers of £192 net from £240 gross and payments to Mr Higgins of £96.88 net from £120.88, £432 in December 2012, and a one-off 2014 payment.

Applying the statutory definitions in section 230 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the Ready Mixed Concrete formulation, the tribunal held that there was no contract between either claimant and the university. It held that any agreement was between the claimants and the Jujitsu Club, that the sums paid were expenses rather than remuneration, and that the claimants' control over coaching was inconsistent with employee status. The tribunal therefore found that neither claimant was an employee or worker employed by the respondent and dismissed both claims. It also noted, without needing to decide the point, that the evidence would not have assisted the claimants in showing worker status even as against the club.