William Beattie v Damien Purcell t/a Dee’s Exhausts [2014]

The claimant presented a claim in which he made a claim of unfair dismissal and/or breach of contract. The respondent presented a response to the tribunal in which it denied liability for the said claims and argued, inter alia, by way of defence that the claimant’s contract of employment was tainted by illegality and therefore was unenforceable. A pre-hearing review was held to decide whether or not the tribunal had jurisdiction to hear the claim having regard to the allegation that his contract of employment with the respondent was an illegal contract of employment. The factual background to this issue was that the claimant was receiving a significant percentage of his wage ‘cash in hand’