Two For One: Worker Status And 'Connection With UK' Considered

Clyde & Co and another v Bates van Winkelhof [2012] EWCA Civ 1207

The Court of Appeal has held that an individual who worked mainly in Tanzania could bring claims in a UK Employment Tribunal.

The individual, Ms Bates Van Winkeholf, spent at least some of her time working in Great Britain, and so the Tribunal was entitled to look solely at her connection with Great Britain in this context in order to determine whether it was sufficiently strong that Parliament would have regarded it as appropriate for the Tribunal to hear her discrimination claim.

Ms BvW was a partner in a law firm and a member of a limited liability partnership ("LLP") rather than an employee. The Court held that an LLP member cannot also be a "worker" under employment legislation.

LLPs are relatively unusual business structures and applying the worker test to them involves comparison with partnerships that are not LLPs. The more interesting point is that, although the Court acknowledged that Ms Bates van Winkelhof's situation fell within the statutory definition of a "worker" (contained in section 230(3)(b) of the Employment Rights Act 1996), it said that there was a further implicit requirement that it must be possible to describe the relationship as an employment one. The relatively equal position of partners in a partnership and of members in an LLP meant that...