Employment relationship SHUFFLED Flashcards
Use of s212 was illustrated in this case.
The claimant was a teacher who provided home tutoring for school pupils who were unable to attend school. She worked for the council for 10 years under a series of different assignments of varying duration.
CA held: once each individual contract was entered into and continued, the claimant was obliged to teach the particular pupil made available to her and the council was obliged to pay her for teaching that pupil; that that was sufficient mutuality of obligation, relating to the work provided and performed under the contract, to establish that each teaching engagement was a contract of service; that, if the claimant had been engaged to teach pupils in a class collectively or individually at a school under a single continuous contract, she would clearly have been employed under a contract of service, and it made no difference to the position at law that she was engaged to teach pupils individually out of school under a series of separate concurrent or successive contracts; and that, therefore, the employment tribunal had been entitled to find that the periods when the claimant was not working were temporary cessations of work within section 212(3) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and that, accordingly, the claimant was to be regarded as an employee of the council continuously during the relevant period.
Cornwall CC v Prater CA
Some people fell outside the “employee” category, so this includes people.
Why do we have a “worker” category?
Zero hours contracts
Refers to the situation where an individual has an arrangement with an employer under which the employer does not promise any particular level of work to the individual.
This refers to a pair of promises: a promise on the part of the employer to provide the employee with future work, and a promise on the part of the employee to accept that work when offered it. The courts have tended to use this principle (mutuality of obligations) as a test for deciding whether or not a contract of employment is present in a particular case.
Mutuality of obligation
Community Dental Centres
dentist under contract to provide dental services under the NHS but EAT found that there was “an absence of an obligation to perform services personally” – therefore self-employed.
Not a worker
The EAT expressed surprise that the Employment Judge had on the one hand concluded that there was no mutuality of obligation when deciding the ‘employee’ question but that there was mutuality of obligation when deciding the ’worker’ question. Also, the claimant’s right not to provide dental services did not depend solely on whether he was unable to do this, but it also depended on whether he was willing to provide the services. Therefore they decided that the contract did not entail an undertaking on the claimant to do work or perform personally any work or service, and so he was not a worker.
Established the control test, but Ready Mixed Concrete confirmed it.
Yewen v Noakes CA
How is the equality act 2010 s83(2)(a) provide more protection than workers
1) reference to “contract personally to do word” does no include the “client or customer” exception that is applicable in the “worker” definition. This might suggest the concept might include some people who are running their own business and therefore have clients or customers, but still undertake to perform the work personally. A self employed plumber might be protected under the Equality Act 2010 definition provided that he undertook to perform the work personally. Therefore, a householder could be liable in employment law when he hires a plumber! But SC has cast doubt on this argument in Jivraj v Hashwani
What is the control test?
CA in Yewen v Noakes established it, but Ready Mixed Concrete confirmed it.
Yewen v Noakes CA
Established the control test, but Ready Mixed Concrete confirmed it.
The Supreme Court has preferred Szilagyi and the dissenting judgment of Elias J in Kalwak:
car valets described in the contractual documents as ‘self-employed’ found to be employees based on an examination of all the relevant evidence, including how the parties were conducting themselves in practice and considering the inequality of bargaining power in the employment relationship.
per Lord Clarke
- The question in every case is what was the ‘true agreement’ between the parties?
- ‘… the relative bargaining power of the parties must be taken into account in deciding whether the terms of any written agreement in truth represent what was agreed and the true agreement will often have to be gleaned from all the circumstances of the case, of which the written agreement is only part. This may be described as a purposive approach to the problem.’
Autoclenz v Belcher [2011] UKSC
Market Investigations v Minister of Social Security
Risk test
Market Investigations [1969] per Cook J: factors suggesting a person is self-employed – ‘in business on his own account’:
Ødoes he provide his own equipment and hire his own helpers?
Øwhat degree of financial risk does he take?
Øwhat responsibility for investment and management?
Øwhat is the opportunity for profit?
1) control
2) risk
Third overarching test of : mutuality of obligation - this helps us distinguish between an employee and a worker
There are three tests for detemining whether a person has a contract of employment and is therefore an employee, what are they
Borrer
but case concerned a clause cutting regular hours - not a typical ZHC - :
had contract to work 48 hours, line manger was allowed to alter the working hours. They were drastically cut to around 20 hours a week – brought action to establish whether this was a breach of contract. Found he was entitled to 48 hours a week due to weaker bargaining power – employer had taken advantage o such a clause (seen as a zero hours clause) in such cases a clause is unenforceable – sufficient evidence under contract and experience of working at 48 hours a eek that the conduct demonstrated a normal expectation of a 48 hour week. Different from a case where no guaranteed hours the standard term of the cotnrac.t an exceptional case.
- Insecurity and uncertainty of such contracts even if not exclusive.
Some suggestion that ZHCs are unlawful as unfair contract terms:
per Lord Clarke
ØThe question in every case is what was the ‘true agreement’ between the parties?
‘… the relative bargaining power of the parties must be taken into account in deciding whether the terms of any written agreement in truth represent what was agreed and the true agreement will often have to be gleaned from all the circumstances of the case, of which the written agreement is only part. This may be described as a purposive approach to the problem.’
Øsame test applies to sham labels in ‘worker’ cases – Pimlico Plumbers v Smith [2018] SC
Autoclenz v Belcher [2011] (UKSC)
It is designed to capture the entrepreneurial nature of self-employment. The idea is that A is an employee if B takes the risk of profit and loss in their relationship.whereas if A takes that risk, he is self-employed. The test was recently use in Quashie case
What is the “risk” test?
Does Autoclenz apply to workers?
Yes - if the individual can prove that the substitution clause in the written contract does not reflect the “true relationship” he may be able to persuade the tribunal to ignore it.
Court has emphasised subordination in later case, it has applied the term in a flexible way which suggests that it will not prove much of an obstacle in practise. Here a claimant was a company director who was dismissed from her employment on grounds of pregnancy. She brought a claim. The court held: the application of the worker definition required a careful assessment of the context. The court suggested that it was significant for the purposes of “subordination”, that the claimant had to report on her work to the supervisory board and could be dismissed by shareholders. This suggests that the use of subordination in EU law is less about identifying employee-like relationships and more about excluding genuine self-employment from the scope of protection. On this reading, it is closer to the SC’s analysis in Bates Van Winkelhof than Jivraj
Danosa
Express & Echo Publications Ltd v Tanton
Personal performance
Mr Tanton contracted with the company to deliver its newspapers around Devon. A term of the contract provided: “In the event that the contractor is unable or unwilling to perform the services personally he shall arrange at his own expense entirely for another suitable person to perform the services.” The Court of Appeal held that the term defeated Mr Tanton’s claim to have been employed under a contract of service
(archaic but a means to establish that someone was under full control of employer)
master/servant - ‘[a] servant is a person who is subject to the command of his master as to the manner in which he shall do his work’ per Bramwell LJ
Yewens v Nokes [1880]
Terms in a written contract purporting to deny any of these elements may be disregarded if they do not reflect the “trust agreement” between the parties.
Autoclenz principle
Saha v Viewpoint Field Services
Zero hour contract. No mutuality
irregular hours, no obligation to accept work = no mutuality of obligation.
Distinguished in Pulse Healthcare v Carewatch Care Services [2012]
To an extent:
Hawaiai - substitution allowed in contract === NOT WORKER
Pimlico - distinguishes hawai because not written in contract (same as autoclenz)
Is substitution okay?
Pimlico Plumbers v Smith [2018] UKSC 29 [2017] EWCA
Plumbers working for PP found to be workers – had an obligation of personal performance or work/services for PP, strong evidence of control by PP, worked for them - not a client or customer – subordination not essential for ‘worker’ status, could be self-employed for tax purposes and still a ‘worker’ – plumbers had an umbrella contract linking multiple assignments (similar to Uber). Substitution clause used was found to be consistent with an obligation of personal performance. This is the leading case. High level of control.
Pumpers according to manual assigned to them have to wear uniforms with Pimlico id, meant to provide services of Pimlico and prohibited from private work for clients of Pimlico under the contact. Although, not written down, it was practised that a plumber to substitute for them if they do not do a certain job on a day. No obligation to accept work when offered but would normally work 40 hours pw for Pimlico. These factors suggest they are not employees.
Held: the plumers were workers because they had a contract to personally perform work for Pimlico even though substitution arrangement, it was not an unfettered right, they would have to find another Pimlico plumber. Upheld at CA and SC. SC Held: they are plumbers: first they said:
- Smith had “obligation of personal performance” to carry out assignment for PP
- PP not withstanding substitution arrangement, exercise considerable control over the plumbers. SC reinforced what B Hale said about the law firm (bates) that subordination is not essential. This was obiter in that case because there was control.
- Limited right to find a subsittiure to perform work (another Pimlico operative) not inconsistent with an obligation of personal performance which was the dominantfeature of the contract
- Obligation of personal performance was the number one for this contract
- Sometimes substitution is so common that personal performance is means no relations, but that is not the case here
- Economic dependency – distinguished in Halawi
- Not a client or customer – an “umbrella contract” to offer work to S when it was avaialbel – had a degree of independence and freedom to say no, but working within organisation suggesting control and performed this work on basis.
- “Independent contractor” label was a sham.
Both CA and SC found to be workers and did not matter that they put down “self employed” for tax purposes. Therefore, even those who may be called self employed, they can fall within the scope.
No: Singh v Bristol Sikh Temple Management Committee.
Does the worker need to show mutuality of obligation?