Worker (Employment Status)
A worker is an intermediate employment status between an employee and a self-employed person. Workers must personally perform services for an end client who is not a customer in a business the worker runs. Workers are entitled to key rights including the National Minimum Wage, paid holiday, and protection from unlawful discrimination, but not to rights that require employee status such as unfair dismissal protection or statutory redundancy pay.
The worker category was confirmed by the Supreme Court in Uber BV v Aslam [2021], which held that Uber drivers were workers rather than independent contractors. Courts look at the economic reality of the relationship, not just the label in the contract. Key factors include personal service, degree of control, and whether the individual is genuinely operating their own business. Workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday per year, the National Living/Minimum Wage, rest breaks, protection under the Working Time Regulations, and whistleblowing protections. They are not entitled to statutory redundancy pay, minimum notice, or protection from unfair dismissal. HMRC has a separate employment status determination for tax purposes (IR35 / off-payroll rules) which does not always align with employment law status.
In practice, status is decided by what actually happens day to day, not by the heading on the contract. Tribunals ask whether you must turn up in person or can send a substitute, who decides when and how you work, who sets the price, who carries the financial risk, and whether the other party is genuinely a client of a business you run. A contract that calls you a self-employed contractor while requiring personal service, wearing a uniform, and following a rota will usually be read as a worker arrangement.
Worked example: Sam delivers for a courier platform. The app allocates jobs, sets the rate, penalises rejections and requires Sam to wear branded kit. Sam cannot send a friend instead. Although the contract says self-employed, those facts point to worker status, so Sam is entitled to the National Living Wage for time spent logged in and available, and to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday accruing on earnings. Sam gathers app screenshots showing shift allocation and rate-setting, starts ACAS early conciliation, and brings a claim for unpaid holiday and wage shortfall.
Two misconceptions cause most of the damage. The first is that paying tax through self assessment settles the question — it does not; HMRC status and employment law status are separate tests and can reach different answers on the same facts. The second is that a substitution clause automatically defeats worker status. If the right to substitute is unreal in practice, or is fettered by the other party approving the substitute, tribunals disregard it. A third trap is delay: the three-month time limit runs from the underpayment or the act complained of, not from the day you finally get advice.
Worker status sits between employee status and genuine self-employment, and it is what makes zero-hours contracts and agency work workable at all, since it carries the National Minimum Wage and paid holiday. If you are unsure which category you fall into, our guide on employee versus worker status walks through the tests, and gig economy rights covers platform work specifically.
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