The Claimant brought complaints of race and disability discrimination, and claims for arrears of pay and other payments said to be due to him as an employee. In each case, he submitted that his employer was the Respondent. All of the complaints arose from the arrangements for the care of the Claimant’s brother (“S”) between 2013 and the date when the ET1 was presented in December 2020. S is an adult with a learning disability. Between 2013 and 2020, the Claimant provided care and support to S. He was paid for that work using sums provided by the respondent as direct payments under the Care Act, 2014 (“the Act”). There was no dispute that, in providing care and support to S, the Claimant worked under a contract of employment. The Respondent denied, however, that he did so at any time as its employee. The ET concluded that the Respondent was not the Claimant’s employer at any time to which his complaints related. It therefore dismissed all of his complaints. The Claimant appealed.

The EAT dismissed the appeal. The ET was entitled, on the basis of the evidence it accepted, to reach the conclusion that there was no contract of employment – express or implied – between the Claimant and the Respondent in the period to which the complaints related.