Introduction

Only an employee can have a contract of employment. A number of important statutory rights are also only available to employees (see the box at the end of chapter 5). Often, the first hurdle for a claimant in any tribunal claim is to show they are an employee, rather than a worker, or someone who is genuinely self-employed. Tribunals call this deciding employment status.

Working out someone’s employment status is often not straightforward, and it is becoming increasingly challenging because of the growth in new types of irregular employment arrangements, designed to maximise flexibility for the employer at the expense of security for the worker.

The genuinely self-employed — those who market their services at arms length to the world in general — have few statutory employment rights. However, it is always important to be satisfied that the self-employment is genuine. There are many examples of sham self-employment, especially in sectors such as construction, where rogue employers deliberately draft contract documentation to exclude or minimise employment rights.