Agency Workers And Employment Status

In recent times, case law has turned against agency workers being able to easily assert a direct employment relationship with the end user/client. A new Court of Appeal case (Tilson v Alstom Transport) continues this trend.

Essentially, the position remains that an employment relationship between an agency worker and an end user client can be implied - but only if it is necessary to give effect to the reality of the relationship (and this will not be done lightly). The Court of Appeal quoted an earlier case in which it was said: "It is not enough to form the view that because the Claimant looked like an employee, acted like an employee and was treated as an employee, the business reality is that he was an employee and the ET must therefore imply a contract of employment." Tribunals will always look into the facts of any individual case, including the documents that purport to record the arrangements between the parties and how the relationship works in practice.