The claimant alleged that he had suffered unlawful deductions from wages and agreed that for tax purposes he was treated as self-employed. Nevertheless, he asserted that he was a worker within the meaning of Article 3(3) of the Employment Rights (NI) Order 1996. The respondent disputed this saying that the claimant was a self-employed contractor and was not entitled to be treated as a worker.

The tribunal made clear that the case of Jivraj v Hashwani [2011] UKSC 40 is considered the seminal authority on the definition of a worker who are a class of persons who "although they are not employees, they are subordinate to the person for whom they work". The tribunal noted that the two relevant