The London Central Employment Tribunal have ruled that they can.
The case concerned three cycle couriers in Dewhurst v Revisecatch. The couriers claimed that, as workers, they should be treated as working under a contract of employment, they were also claiming £35,000, owed to them by their previous employer, City Sprint, should be paid by eCourier eCourier are a Royal Mail subsidiary, which took over their contracts.
An ’employee’ is defined in the TUPE regulations as an individual that ‘works for another person, whether under a contract of service or apprenticeship or otherwise’.
Employment Tribunal Judge Joffe, stated: “It is clear from its working that the TUPE regulations 2006 is intended to confer rights and protections on a broader class of employees than those employed under a contract of employment or apprenticeship as reflected in the words ‘or otherwise’.
“Applying those principles, I can properly give effect to the Acquired Rights Directive by concluding that the words ‘or otherwise’ are to be constructed so as to embrace limb b) workers.
“This interpretation does not ‘go against the grain’ of TUPE 2006, the purpose of which, in accordance with the Acquired Rights Directive, is to preserve the employment [or] labour law rights of those who work within an undertaking when that undertaking changes hands. Our ‘general employment law’ protects both limb b) workers and traditional employees, at different levels of protection, and both of these classes have their rights preserved by TUPE 2006.”
The decision in this case demonstrates the never ending complexities of employment law in the UK which involve the various sectors of ‘workers’.
