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Redrow Homes (Yorkshire) v Wright [2004] ICR 1126

By Oxbridge Law TeamUpdated 07/01/2024 17:55

Judgement for the case Redrow Homes (Yorkshire) v Wright

Table Of Contents

  • Plaintiff entered a ‘subcontract’ agreement with Defendant to work on a 6-month project. He was paid weekly, supplied none of his own tools, with tax being deducted. There was a clause allowing him ‘to employ his own operatives and also the supply of sufficient labour to maintain the rate of progress the company might stipulate.’

  • CA held that he was a worker for purposes of working time regs (see above). 

Pill LJ

  • Policy considerations and the ‘actual facts’ do NOT determine whether a person comes within the definition of worker: This is simply a matter of statutory construction.

  • The fact that Plaintiff actually did the work personally does not mean that there was a contractual obligation to do so (it simply provides evidence sometimes).

  • Here there was an obligation on Plaintiff to do the work personally: The wide substitution clause was simply there because the contract was standard-term and used for subcontracting businesses, as well as individuals like Plaintiff. 

Holman J

  • He criticised the EAT (lower court) for looking at what actually happened rather than what the contract said.

  • He maintained that considering what happened in fact was ‘irrelevant’ and ‘inadmissible’.

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Labour Law Notes
1,003 total pages
273 purchased

Labour Law notes fully updated for recent exams at Oxford and Cambridge...