Mr A Crovetti v Represented by: Mr B Napier - KC Fife Employment Access Trust and 4 others — 2026

Mr A Crovetti presented whistleblowing claims against Fife Employment Access Trust and four individual respondents. At this preliminary hearing, the Tribunal determined only whether he was a worker of the first respondent under the extended definition in section 43K(1)(a) of the Employment Rights Act 1996; it did not decide the merits of the whistleblowing claims.

Applying the guidance in McTigue v University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, the Tribunal found that Mr Crovetti worked both for Crovetti Associates Limited, of which he was sole director, and for the first respondent on the Silverburn Flax Mill project. Although it was common ground that he was not the first respondent's worker under section 230(3), Crovetti Associates was legally separate from him and had supplied him to the first respondent through its tender for his appointment as project director.

The Tribunal found that Mr Crovetti did not determine the terms on which he performed the work. The first respondent's invitation to tender and project briefs specified the contract's price, duration and project-director responsibilities, while Crovetti Associates submitted the tender and later provided standard terms and conditions. The Tribunal therefore concluded that Crovetti Associates and the first respondent had both substantially determined the terms in practice, bringing Mr Crovetti within section 43K(1)(a).

The Tribunal rejected the respondents' submissions that the possible availability of another remedy or a right of substitution affected that determination. It held that Mr Crovetti was a worker of the first respondent for the protected-disclosure provisions, directed that listing letters be issued for a final hearing, and made no monetary award in this judgment.