Continuity

Prater v Cornwall County Council [2006] EWCA Civ 102; NLJ 3 March

The claimant was a teacher engaged by the defendant local authority as a home tutor to teach children who were unable to attend school. Work was offered by the authority to the claimant by way of particular pupils, who would be taught by her at the pupil’s home. The authority was not under any contractual obligation to offer pupils to the claimant, nor was the claimant under any contractual obligation to accept them. The claimant contended that she should be treated as having been continuously employed by the authority since her engagement as a home tutor in 1988. She relied on the succession of numerous individual teaching contracts, contending that the gaps between the individual contracts were covered by the continuity provisions of s212 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.