Employment status: Contract of employment must require employee to provide services personally

In Express and Echo Publications Ltd v Tanton 11.3.99 Court of Appeal, the Court of Appeal holds that it is necessary for a contract of employment to contain an obligation on the part of the employee to provide his or her services personally. It was established that where, as here, a person who works for another is not required to provide his or her services personally, as a matter of law the relationship between the worker and the person for whom he or she works is not that of employee and employer. A provision in the agreement between the parties to the present case entitling the worker not to provide any services personally was wholly inconsistent with a contract of employment, and the only conclusion that could properly have been reached was that the agreement was a contract for services.