Exchequer Solutions Limited (ESL) is an umbrella company providing construction workers to the building trade, hired on a contract basis to work on different projects.

The key issue in this appeal at the First Tier Tribunal is whether ESL employs the workers on a continuous basis under an overarching or umbrella contract of employment which covers all of the various assignments undertaken by a particular employee through ESL and includes any gaps between those assignments (including periods where the individual may be working for another employer), or whether there is a series of separate contracts of employment for each individual assignment.