Gorman v Terence Paul (Manchester) Ltd [2020]

The claimant, a hairdresser, commenced work for the respondent as an apprentice hair stylist in 2013.    She fully qualified in October 2014 and the respondent gave her a document to sign headed ‘Independent Contract for Services’.  This stated that the claimant was to be a ‘self-employed hair stylist’.  The reasoning for this in the contract was that the respondent believed that it would not be able to retain high quality hair stylists as employees and that the stylists would want to take the financial risk and have flexibility.

The provisions of the contract included a substitution clause, it allowed the claimant to choose when to be in the salon subject the