{"id":852407,"date":"2025-05-31T09:11:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T14:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/31\/judge-dismisses-tribunal-discrimination-case-against-morgan-sindall\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T09:11:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T14:11:44","slug":"judge-dismisses-tribunal-discrimination-case-against-morgan-sindall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/31\/judge-dismisses-tribunal-discrimination-case-against-morgan-sindall\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge dismisses tribunal discrimination case against Morgan Sindall"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"legal_uk_generic-1024x683.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\n

An employment tribunal has dismissed a discrimination case brought against Morgan Sindall on the grounds the claimant was not a contract worker.<\/p>\n

Electrical installer Mr K Crossland took legal action in October 2024 against contractors Whitehead Building Services Ltd and Morgan Sindall for disability discrimination, age discrimination and victimisation under the Equality Act.<\/p>\n

It came after he had worked at a site for service contractor Whitehead, which was being project managed by Morgan Sindall<\/a>, in Abergavenny for only a few hours on 10 June last year, during which he undertook an induction and then left.<\/p>\n

But at an employment tribunal in Cardiff in May, Judge Claire Sharp threw out his case on the grounds he was self-employed and not a contract worker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judgement of the tribunal is that the claimant\u2019s claims are not well-founded and are dismissed as he was not a contract worker under s41 Equality Act 2010,\u201d she ruled.<\/p>\n

The tribunal heard that Crossland operated through an umbrella company called Crest Plus, using the Construction Industry Scheme, and was engaged through construction recruitment firm Sphere Solutions Ltd to work on the Abergavenny site for the respondents.<\/p>\n

But the hearing was told his contract with Crest stated he would immediately tell Crest Plus if he ceased to be self-employed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Crest Plus contract confirms that the claimant is an independent self-employed professional and can send a substitute to do his work, provided that substitute meets certain requirements. The claimant did not send a substitute during his engagement through Sphere, which only existed on 10 June 2024,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Crest contract shows that it would only pay the claimant when it received money from whoever was due to pay him; the claimant bore the risk of non-payment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no evidence of a contract between Crest and Sphere for the provision of the claimant\u2019s labour; the evidence shows that the claimant personally contacted Sphere and dealt with it but there is no written contract between the claimant and Sphere either.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judgement highlighted the absence of written contract between Crossland and Sphere, saying that Sphere \u201chad no contractual control over him, it had no supervision function, it did not pay him directly, and there was no mutuality of obligation\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The tribunal heard Crossland initiated contact with Sphere after applying to a job advert for freelance work. He then accepted the work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe claimant, as is consistent with his Crest Plus documentation and the reality of the situation, had been hired as a self-employed subcontractor to carry out the work of an electrical improver on the site run by [Whitehead],\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSphere did contract with [Whitehead] to provide the claimant. However, as the claimant was not Sphere\u2019s employee, but training on his own account, he was not a contract worker under s41 and the claims are therefore not well founded and are dismissed.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Morgan Sindall] is not a principal. It had no contract with Sphere and is too removed from the claimant\u2019s engagement to be treated as the principal. At its highest [Morgan Sindall] would have gained some benefit if the claimant had undertaken any work as part of the much larger overall project, but it had no influence or control over the claimant\u2019s engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Related Article<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Nicola Harley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An employment tribunal has dismissed a discrimination case brought against Morgan Sindall on the grounds the claimant was not a contract worker. Electrical installer Mr K Crossland took legal action in October 2024 against contractors Whitehead Building Services Ltd and Morgan Sindall for disability discrimination, age discrimination and victimisation under the Equality Act. It came<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":852408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25535,559],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-852407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dismisses","8":"category-judge"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}