Employment status

New and updated

• Type:

  FAQs

  When does a casual worker become an employee?

• Date:

  15 December 2001

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Employment status: Computer specialist not an employee as no contract of any kind existed between the parties

  In Hewlett Packard Ltd v O'Murphy, the EAT holds that a computer specialist was not an employee of the company to which he provided his services - Hewlett Packard - as there was no contractual relationship of any kind between them.

• Date:

  15 April 2001

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Employment status: Insufficient control meant that worker was not employee of agency

  A person who found work through an employment agency and remained in that same job for more than two years was not employed by the agency, holds the Court of Appeal in Montgomery v Johnson Underwood Ltd.

• Date:

  15 January 2001

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Employment status: Client of employment agency had sufficient control to be employer of agency worker

  In Motorola Ltd v Davidson and another, dealing solely with the issue of control, the EAT holds that a client of an employment agency had sufficient control over the worker assigned to it to sustain a finding that it was in fact the employer of the worker.

• Date:

  1 January 2000

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Employment status: Tour guides engaged on "casual as required basis" were not employees

  In Carmichael and another v National Power plc, the House of Lords holds that two women who accepted a company's written offer of employment as tour guides "on a casual as required basis", and then worked as guides on invitation when they were available and chose to work, were not employees under contracts of employment.

• Date:

  15 April 1999

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Employment status: Controlling shareholder could also be employee

  In Secretary of State for Trade and Industry v Bottrill, the Court of Appeal upholds an employment tribunal's finding that a controlling shareholder of a company could also be an employee of that company for the purposes of the employment protection legislation.

• Date:

  15 June 1997

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Employment status: Agency worker was "employee" for specific assignment

  In McMeechan v Secretary of State for Employment, the Court of Appeal holds that a temporary worker on the books of an employment agency may have the status of employee of the agency in respect of each assignment actually worked, notwithstanding that the same worker may not be entitled to employee status under his or her general terms of engagement.

• Date:

  1 October 1995

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Contracts of employment: Employment status in the safety context

  In Lane v The Shire Roofing Co (Oxford) Ltd, the Court of Appeal holds that a roofer hired by a company for an individual roofing job was an employee, and so the company was liable to pay damages for the personal injury he suffered when he fell off his ladder whilst carrying out that work.

• Date:

  1 August 1995

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Contracts of employment: Agency worker was an employee

  The EAT holds in McMeechan v Secretary of State for Employment and another that where a temporary worker's relationship with an employment agency or business is governed by a written contract, the employment status of that worker is dependent on the construction of the contractual terms.

• Date:

  23 August 1983

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Contracts of employment: Casual waiters not employees

  An Industrial Tribunal's decision as to whether a contract is a contract of employment can only be overturned on appeal if the Tribunal misdirected itself in law or reached a perverse decision on the facts, the majority of the Court of Appeal concludes in the widely publicised case of O'Kelly and others v Trusthouse Forte Plc.