Mrs J Shanks v Scottish Qualifications Authority — 2025

The tribunal held that Mrs J Shanks was a worker within section 230(3)(b) ERA 1996 in both her invigilator and chief invigilator roles. It accepted that there was a contract, that the work was to be done personally, and that the Scottish Qualifications Authority was not a client or customer. In reaching that conclusion it relied on the written terms, the invigilator handbook, the fixed exam-diet arrangements, PAYE deductions, auto-enrolment, and the level of control exercised through SQA terms and the chief invigilator structure. It rejected the respondent's submissions on mutuality and substitution, and referred to authorities including Autoclenz, Ter-Berg, Somerville, Uber, Pimlico Plumbers and Stuart Delivery.

On holiday pay, the 2024 claim succeeded. The tribunal found that the claimant was entitled to holiday pay for the 2024 contract and that the holiday pay calculation was not limited to the invigilator hours. It held that the contractual admin fee of PS424 also attracted holiday pay under the amended Working Time Regulations because it was paid in fulfilment of contractual obligations. The total holiday pay award for 2024 was PS348.18, made up of PS297 for invigilator work and PS51.18 on the admin fee.

The 2023 holiday pay claim was dismissed as time barred. The tribunal accepted that the claimant only became aware of a possible holiday pay claim in July 2024 and treated her ignorance up to that point as reasonable, but it found that she did not present the claim within a reasonable time after becoming aware of her rights. The tribunal therefore dismissed the 2023 claim notwithstanding that the parties had agreed a figure of PS89.46 for the underlying holiday pay. The separate unlawful deduction from wages claim for additional admin hours also failed because the contract fixed the admin fee, the extra hours asserted were estimates, and those sums were not properly payable under section 13 ERA 1996. The tribunal also rejected any Acas uplift because the Acas Code did not apply to appointees who were not staff.