In Stringfellows Restaurants Ltd v Quashie (CA – 21 December) a company (S) operated two ‘gentlemen’s entertainment clubs’ in London. It arranged for young women to dance at the clubs and treated them as self-employed. The dancers received payments from customers at the clubs in the form of vouchers which S distributed. A dancer (Q) who had worked at one of the clubs from June 2007 to December 2008 took proceedings against S in the Employment Tribunal contending that she had been an employee of S and had been unfairly dismissed. The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that Q had been an employee but the CA unanimously allowed S’s appeal holding that Q had been self-employed. Elias LJ held that ‘the club did not employ the dancers to dance’ and that the dancers paid the club ‘to be provided with an opportunity...
