Jess Varnish loses employment tribunal appeal against British Cycling

Twenty-nine-year-old also lost her initial case in January 2019

Jess Varnish competing in London in 2016 (Getty Images)

Jess Varnish’s appeal against an employment tribunal ruling has been dismissed.

The 29-year-old lost her initial employment case against British Cycling in January 2019, which ruled that the relationship between athlete and governing body was more akin to a student receiving a grant than an employer/employee arrangement.

She won the right to an appeal in December last year, and her appeal was heard in May, but Mr Justice Choudhury has ruled that the initial tribunal’s decision was correct.

The written judgement stated: “The tribunal was entitled to conclude, based on an evaluative judgment taking account of all relevant factors, that the claimant was not an employee or a worker.

“The tribunal had not erred in its approach to the assessment of employee status and nor had it reached conclusions that no reasonable tribunal, properly directed, could have reached.” PA