Legal News

An out-of-hours GP was not obliged to accept work, but was held to be a ‘worker’ so that she could claim for holiday pay and under the Equality Act.

The claimant provided NHS GP services through Community Based Healthcare (CBH). She was among 12 doctors who regularly worked the same shifts providing out-of-hours services. However she was not obliged to accept work and CBH was not obliged to provide any.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) in Narayan v Community Based Healthcare www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2019/0162_18_0209.html upheld a tribunal decision that she was a ‘worker’, and so could claim for unpaid holiday pay and race and sex discrimination.

It said the key distinction from a previous EAT decision, Suhail, was the finding that Dr Suhail marketed his services to NHS bodies while this claimant worked regular shifts for CBH over many years.

From October 2015 the claimant had payments from CBH made to a company she set up, but did not tell CBH about the company. The EAT upheld a decision that CBH’s contract was still with her rather than with the company.

More: Workers>OH practitioners as ‘workers’.