A self-employed hairdresser has won her case against a Terence Paul salon in Manchester, with the tribunal ruling that the amount of control over her working practices effectively made her an employee of the salon. Ms Gorman worked at the salon for 6 years, and claimed she had to work the hours set by the salon, and that the salon kept 67% of her takings. She also had no control over pricing or offering discounts, she had to use the salon’s products and she had to conform to the salon dress code.
According to Ms Gorman, the salon clearly had the power and control, and she did not believe she was in business on her account. In addition to claiming for holiday pay, she will now pursue further claims against Terence Paul, including unfair dismissal, sexual discrimination and failure to provide a written contract of employment.
This case reconfirms that the actual relationship between the parties and their working practices are ultimately more important than the contractual arrangements when establishing employment status. This is nothing new, however there is still a surprising lack of awareness amongst businesses despite the numerous recent self-employment / worker cases hitting the headlines.
