Am I a worker or self-employed?
Short answer
The label in your contract does not decide it — tribunals look at the reality: control, whether you must work personally, and whether the other party is genuinely your client. If you work personally under someone else’s control, you are likely a worker, entitled to minimum wage, paid leave and rest breaks.
UK law recognises three statuses — employee, worker and self-employed — and they carry very different rights. Crucially, what your contract calls you is not decisive. Courts and tribunals examine the reality of the relationship: who controls what work is done and how, whether you must provide the service personally or can send a genuine substitute, whether there is mutuality of obligation, and whether the other party is truly a client of a business you run.
The middle category
A "worker" is someone who works under a contract to perform work or services personally, where the other party is not a client or customer of a business carried on by the individual. Agency staff, gig economy couriers and many freelancers fall here. As a worker you are entitled to:
- The National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage
- 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave under the Working Time Regulations
- Rest breaks and working time protections
- Protection from unlawful deduction from wages
- Whistleblowing protection and protection from discrimination under the Equality Act 2010
What workers do not get is unfair dismissal protection or statutory redundancy pay — those need employee status, generally with two years’ continuous service.
Challenging a misclassification
Since Uber v Aslam in the Supreme Court in 2021, platform and delivery staff who must follow app instructions, cannot freely substitute, and whose rates and hours are set by the platform have often been held to be workers rather than self-employed. If that describes your working life:
- Gather evidence of control — rotas, app rules, performance metrics, penalties, rate-setting, and any bar on substitution.
- Notify Acas Early Conciliation, then bring a tribunal claim seeking a declaration of worker status together with unpaid holiday pay or minimum wage arrears.
One quirk to expect: employment status for tax is assessed under a different test, so you can be a worker for employment rights while HMRC treats you as self-employed. The two conclusions can legitimately differ, so do not let an employer use your tax status as a reason to deny you holiday pay.
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