The Supreme Court’s recent football referee decision on the common law test for employment status has ‘wide ramifications’ for employment law, Harry Sheehan, Devereux Chambers, writes in this week’s NLJ
The case, Revenue and Customs Commissioners v Professional Game Match Officials, revolved around the working terms of a company that supplies referees and match officials for high-level football competitions such as the Premier League and FA Cup. HMRC argued that referees who officiate in their spare time while being employed full-time elsewhere—primarily refs in Championship League and FA Cup games—are employed by the company and should be taxed as such. The company disagreed.
Sheehan, who was instructed as junior counsel for Professional Game Match Officials in the appeal to the Supreme Court, writes that the decision ‘provides essential and authoritative guidance to a legal test which is the key to accessing the rights and obligations that form the backbone of employment law’.
