Continuity of service

Case 5: The facts

Home tutor Margaret Prater was employed by a local education authority to teach pupils as and when needed. Although she could choose not to take on particular pupils is she wished, she never did so, and she taught her pupils for as long as was necessary – which could be up to five years.

The authority argued that Prater was a casual worker with no employment rights, but the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) ruled that she had been an employee for the whole of the time she had worked for the authority (see Workplace Report, July 2005).

The ruling

The Court of Appeal upheld the EAT’s decision. There had been the necessary mutuality of obligation – once Prater accepted pupils, she was obliged to teach them and the authority was obliged to pay her – and the gaps between contracts were “temporary cessations of work” which did not break continuity of service.

Cornwall CC v Prater [2006] EWCA Civ 102 ([2006] IRLR 362)