“House of Lords clarifies employment status test for casual workers”
Mrs Carmichael and others worked as casual tour guides at Drakelow Power Station for National Power plc. They were called upon when required, with no guaranteed hours or work, and could refuse assignments. When made redundant, they claimed unfair dismissal, requiring them to establish employee status rather than independent contractor status.
Whether casual workers with no guaranteed hours or continuity of work could be considered employees for the purposes of employment protection legislation.
The House of Lords held that the tour guides were not employees but independent contractors, and therefore not entitled to claim unfair dismissal.
This case established the 'mutuality of obligation' test as central to determining employment status, becoming the leading authority on distinguishing employees from independent contractors in UK employment law.
You're reading the free summary of Carmichael v National Power. Create a free account to unlock the full reasoning, the cited authorities and the verbatim judgment — plus structured briefs for 412,000+ UK judgments.
No card required. Free forever.
OSCOLA Citation
Carmichael v National Power plc [1999] 1 WLR 2042 (HL)
Multiple official and mirror sources — pick whichever loads cleanly on your network.
Falls back to Google for old citations BAILII catalogues separately
Common Room
0 comments · About the Common Room →
No comments yet — start the discussion.
Voted-best comments help future students and feed Caselaw's AI study tools.