2. CATEGORIES OF WORKER

Employment status

There are legal distinctions between an employee, a worker and someone who is genuinely self-employed. These distinctions are important because individuals have different statutory employment rights according to their employment status.

Statutory rights are rights that derive from a particular Act of Parliament or other piece of legislation. While contractual rights can be enforced by anyone with a contract (whether or not in writing), statutory rights only apply to the category of individuals identified in the particular statute.

Individuals who are genuinely self-employed — marketing their services at “arms length” to the market in general — have few statutory employment rights. However, it is important to make sure someone is genuinely self-employed, as there are many examples of sham self-employment, especially in sectors such as construction.

As well as being protected by general equality legislation, part-time workers and fixed-term employees are protected by specific legislation from less favourable treatment because of their employment status (see pages 58 to 61). Eligible agency workers also have specific equality rights in relation to pay, hours, holidays and some maternity rights (see pages 62-66).

Determining an individual’s employment status is not straightforward, and is becoming increasingly challenging, largely as a result of the growth of new types of irregular employment arrangements, designed to maximise flexibility for the employer at the expense of security for the worker. In its response to the 2014 Department for Business, Innovation & Skills consultation on the spread of zero-hours contracts, the TUC calls for employment status law to be reformed to ensure that all workers benefit from the same basic floor of rights at work, and for the system of enforcement to be strengthened, especially through the abolition of tribunal fees.

The box below sets out the main employment rights applying to workers and employees.