Employment

Unfair dismissal - employment agency - applicant on long-term assignment not employed by agencyMontgomery v Johnson Underwood Ltd: CA (Lords Justices Brooke and Longmore and Mr Justice Buckley):9 March 2001The applicant obtained a position from the defendant, an employment agency, to work as a receptionist for O Ltd.

After receiving notification of the agency's conditions she commenced the job, being paid by the agency on an hourly basis.

After two years she was dismissed by O Ltd and brought proceedings for unfair dismissal against both the agency and O Ltd.

An employment tribunal on a preliminary issue held that the applicant was employed by the agency.

The decision was upheld by the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

The agency appealed.Charles Samek (instructed by EMW Law, Northampton) for the agency.

Rambert de Mello (instructed by Murria, Birmingham) for the applicant.Held, allowing the appeal, that the principles for determining whether the applicant was an employee of the agency were set out in Ready Mixed Concrete (South East) Ltd v Minister of Pensions and National Insurance [1968] 2 QB 497, 515; that it was for the employment tribunal to identify whether there existed mutual obligation together with a degree of control exercised by the agency over the applicant; that circumstances could lead to a finding that an offer of work by an agency at another's workplace for remuneration paid by the agency satisfied the requirement of mutual obligation; but that, since there was clear evidence of lack of sufficient control by the agency over the applicant, the tribunal had erred in law in concluding as it had.