The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held in United Taxis v Ltd v Comolly that a taxi driver could not simultaneously be an employee and a worker of two different employers in respect of the same work.
The claimant, a taxi driver, was registered with UT Ltd, a licensed taxi operator, and carried out driving work for UT Ltd's passengers through one of the company's shareholders, T. Drivers registered with UT Ltd were expected to abide by its byelaws (which included dress code and handling of jobs) and, amongst other things, UT Ltd carried out the recruitment and training of drivers and the management of disciplinary matters. The fares received for the claimant's driving were split between him and T on a 50/50 basis. There was no written contract between the claimant and T, and the relationship was described as one of self-employment. T provided the claimant with a taxi that was insured and maintained by T. The claimant was required to accommodate, within his working day, scheduled maintenance of the taxi and had to pay a contribution to T for insurance.
The claimant brought various complaints to the employment tribunal when his working relationship with T ended, asserting that he was either an employee or a worker of UT Ltd and T. The tribunal found that he was a worker of UT Ltd and an employee of T.
The EAT disagreed, finding that he could not simultaneously be an employee or worker of two employers in respect of the same work. It found that there was no contract in which the claimant provided his services as a worker to UT Ltd. He accessed driving work via UT Ltd by working for a shareholder and there was never a contract between him and UT Ltd under which he worked directly for it. The EAT also found that there was no employment contract with T although, drawing on the tribunal's findings of fact, the EAT substituted a finding that the claimant was actually a worker of T.
Take note: Although it may seem from the decision in Comolly that joint employment is not a legal possibility, this doesn't change our existing advice on the topic. An arrangement where someone is employed by a consortium of several employers acting jointly does still appear to be possible based on other case law principles, but it will clearly be important to get the practicalities of such an arrangement right, particularly when it comes to allocating responsibility for dealing with employment rights. For more detail on the topic please refer to our flyer, 'The end of joint contracts? A practical view'.
