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Invisible Employees
You may well have employees you know nothing about! Those temps or agency workers you use could, in law, be your employees despite the fact that you have never once discussed the issue with them and never paid them directly either.
This is the upshot of two recent Court of Appeal Judgements, Franks v Reuters (2003) and Brook Street v Dacas (2004). Both cases concerned individuals supplied by an employment agency to the client, or end-user as the Court described them. Mr Franks worked for over 5 years and Mrs Dacas for 6 years. When the work was terminated the individuals brought unfair dismissal claims. By whom, if anyone, were these people employed?
In Franks the Court thought there was a strong case for saying that an implied contract of employment had arisen and the case was sent back to the Tribunal to think again.
In Dacas, the Court of Appeal rejected the idea that the applicant, a cleaner, was employed by the agency which had supplied her. The majority were of the clear view that she was employed by the local authority at whose premises she worked.
The common theme of these decisions is that it beggared belief that someone could work for so long and not acquire any employment rights. It defied logic that an individual could be thrown out of a long-term work without having build up rights against someone.
We are informed by John Foy Q.C. who appeared in Dacas that the case is not being taken to the House of Lords.
Practical Tip
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The normal unfair dismissal qualifying period is 12 months so provided agency staff are not retained for that length of time, they will be ineligible to claim unfair dismissal. N.B. there are many exceptions to the 12 month rule and there is no qualifying period for discrimination claims. |
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Agency Contract |
If you are looking to end a long-term agency contract today, take our advice! |
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