Employment status/sex discrimination: Church minister was employee for sex discrimination purposes

In Percy v Church of Scotland Board of National Mission [2006] IRLR 195, the House of Lords holds that a Church of Scotland minister had entered into a contract personally to execute work or labour, and accordingly was an "employee" within the meaning of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. The fact that she was a holder of an ecclesiastical office did not mean that she could not also be working under a contract and, in this case, the agreement between the parties, which dealt with her duties, remuneration, accommodation and holiday, created legal relations. The contract was enforceable under civil law. The exercise of statutory rights under the contract could not be regarded as a "spiritual matter" in respect of which the church had exclusive jurisdiction.