Exploring the Employer/Employee Relationship - Geoff Owen, Parabis Group
09/02/15. A number of recent cases have explored the relationship between two parties to determine whether or not they were employer and employee. The test is usually relatively straightforward: was there in place a contract of service (employee) or a contract for services (independent contractor)?
This was the issue in Nadeem v Shell UK Oil Products and another (2014) in which the claimant argued that he was an employee and the defendants liable for the stress related illness he developed at work.
The relationship between the parties was governed by a retail business agreement (RBA) under which the claimant operated a number of petrol stations for the defendants. He was obliged by the terms of the RBA to buy fuel and other products as directed by the defendants and the proceeds were paid into a bank account from which the defendants could draw what was owed to them by direct debit. The claimant was also permitted to stock and sell other goods and retain the profits. He claimed that he was owed a duty of care by the defendants as an employee under a contract of service, or alternatively that he was a...
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