A consultant solicitor has been given the title of 'worker' by the Employment Tribunal

Gayle Roberts had qualified as a litigation solicitor in 2000, and was hired as a consultant litigation solicitor at Bridge Law Solicitors following her application after a social media advertisement for the role. Roberts had not worked in the legal field for around 15 years immediately preceding her new role.

The firm, based in Stockport, was taken to the Employment Tribunal (‘ET’) by Roberts recently for claims of unfair dismissal and unpaid annual leave and wages. 

In the hiring of Roberts, it was agreed between the parties that her consultant work would be invoiced through a third party; a company set up by Roberts and her husband. Ultimately, no new contract for employment was written or signed. It was Roberts’ husband who created the invoices to ensure his wife was paid. 

At the ET, the initial problem concerned the status of Roberts’ position within the firm, namely whether she was an employee, a worker or a self-employed individual. Judge Cookson explained how surprised they were that ‘two experienced solicitors should apparently have given so little thought to such a basic legal question as “what are the legal parties to this contract”’. The use of invoices to receive payment came under scrutiny in making the decision.  

The Judge concluded that Roberts was a worker for the firm, as there ‘was no right of substitution’, and the ‘dominant feature of the contract remained personal performance.’ He continued to say ‘I find this was a relationship which would best be described as a flexible relationship, clearly lacking the key elements of an employment relationship but nevertheless something more than an ad hoc assignment to assignment series of engagements. In short, the claimant was a worker.’

This could be a leading case for future solicitor consultants who face the need to take a firm to court for similar claims.