Sessional Employment
by Liam
In the appeal of North Wales Probation Area v Edwards, Mrs Edwards was offered work as a relief hostel worker after signing a document which was titled ’Relief Hostel Worker Contract’, to cover absences of the permanent staff. Sessional employment was what this appeal was concerned with, in which it was to be decided whether or not Mrs Edwards, a relief hostel worker, was an employee under a contract of employment.
It was held that there was a contract of employment when both a) Mrs Edwards arrived to work the sessions that had been offered to her and b) when she completed the hours that she was required to work. Mrs Edwards was held to be an employee under a contract of employment for each session she worked. It was therefore found that in light of these successive individual contracts Mrs Edwards worked under a contract of employment for the duration of each session (but not during the gaps).
The case did not deal with the issue of continuous employment for Unfair Dismissal purposes - the case was an appeal from a pre-hearing review that was limited to determining the issue of employment status. The decision is enough to give employees the right to make discrimination claims as no length of service is required, but could continuity clock up to reach the magic year?
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