Defining a contract

Case 6: The facts

Propertycare offered contracts stating they were for services and were therefore not contracts of employment. The EAT had to decide what the real nature of the contracts was.

The ruling

The EAT held that, in the absence of an obligation on the employer's part to provide work, the mere obligation to pay for work done did not create a contract of employment.

A "mutuality of obligations" essential to such an employment contract requires there to be the obligation both to offer work and to pay wages.

Propertycare v Gower and others EAT/0547/03