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Agency workers: Agency worker not employee of agency or end-user

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    Bunce v Postworth Ltd t/a Skyblue [2005] IRLR 557 CA (0 other reports)

Key points

In Bunce v Postworth Ltd (t/a Skyblue), the Court of Appeal holds:

  • In certain circumstances, there may be an umbrella agreement governing the relationship between a worker and an employment agency, alongside individual, separate contracts in respect of specific assignments for the agency's clients. However, on the facts of this case, there could be no contracts of service in respect of individual assignments, since day-to-day control was exercised by the end user.
  • A clause in the agency agreement which obliged the worker to "accept the directions, supervision and instruction of any person in the Client's organisation" was not sufficient, as the law is concerned with who in reality has the power to control what the worker does and how he does it. The appeal was unanimously dismissed.