Case study – Tech Services Ltd, Portsmouth

Tech Services Ltd (TSL) are a web design service based in Portsmouth. They take orders from clients and match them with local web designers who create the websites. Jane has only worked in the office of TSL for a year. She reviews instructions from clients and selects a suitable designer to do the job. Her contract states that she is an independent contractor and provides client handling services for TSL. Her contract does not stipulate whether she is entitled to annual leave and sick pay. She works Monday to Friday under the direction of her line manager Ross. She is contracted to work for 35 hours per week but she is allowed to leave work at a time she chooses as long as her work for the day is done. This allows her to fit her work around caring for her children. Her contract says that either party can terminate the contract by giving one month’s notice. She is given a uniform to wear and she works exclusively from the premises of the TSL under the supervision of the Manager. She is paid £350 per week via TSL’s PAYE payment system. However, she is required to seek permission for any holiday or annual leave and inform Ross if she is sick. A few weeks ago, Jane decided to take two weeks leave with the permission of Ross. However, at the end of the month, she found her salary did not account for the days she was on annual leave. Rachel explained that because she is an independent contractor, she is not entitled to any holiday pay. Rory is an employee of TSL and has worked for TSL for 10 years. He has been struggling for the last 2 years to keep up with changes in the way websites are designed. His line manager, Craig, began to notice that he was not able to understand some of the code that web designers were submitting for review. Craig held a meeting with Rory to discuss these concerns. They agreed that Rory should spend one day a week practicing his coding skills and keeping up to date with the latest web design techniques. 6 months later the situation had not improved and Rory was still struggling to supervise the work of web designers effectively. Craig held another meeting in which he and Rory agreed that TSL would offer him a 2-week training course in the latest web design techniques and that he would have another review in 6 months to check if his work had improved. Rory went on the course in January 2020 and his work improved for a while. However, by September 2020 Rory’s work had deteriorated back to the standard it was before the training course. Craig felt he had no choice but to dismiss Rory. He wrote to Rory and invited him to a disciplinary meeting the next day. At the meeting Craig informed Rory that he was dismissed for poor performance effective immediately.

Answer both questions 1 and 2 below. Each question carries 50 marks.
Questions
1. Jane is not happy, as she believes she is an employee rather than an independent contractor, and has come to you. Advise Jane on her employment status, and any claim she may have against TSL. (50 marks)

2. Advise Rory as to whether he may be able to make a claim for unfair dismissal. (50 marks)