The latest IT Contractor News from Contract Eye

In the recent case of Tilson v Alstom Transport at the Court of Appeal, a contractor has had his claims for unfair dismissal rejected as there was no contractual relationship between himself and his end client.

Contractor Andrew Tilson, originally claimed that he had been unfairly dismissed by his client (Alstom Transport).

At an Employment Tribunal in March 2009, he was found to be an 'employee' of the client and was therefore allowed to claim for unfair dismissal despite being an independent contractor.

However, this original ruling was overturned on appeal by the end client in November 2009.

Subsequently, Mr Tilson took the case to the Court of Appeal.

Despite his working practices demonstrating that he acted like an 'employee' of his end client in many ways, the Court of Appeal found that Mr Tilson's claims were inconsistent with his position as an independent contractor, so a contract of employment could not be implied due to his existing contractual relationships.

Significantly, Mr Tilson had rejected an original offer of becoming a 'permanent employee' of the end client, opting instead to provide his services via a limited company. This shows that the intention of the parties in the case was a significant factor in the end result.

You can read the transcript of the judgement (19th November 2010) here.

A good summary of the case can be found here.