Am I an employee, a worker or self-employed?
Three statuses with three different sets of rights. What you are called matters far less than how the arrangement actually operates in practice.
- Difficulty
- intermediate
- Time
- 15 min
- Read
- 2 min
Short answer
Employees have the full set of rights including redundancy pay and unfair dismissal after qualifying service. Workers get a narrower set — minimum wage, holiday, rest breaks, protection from unlawful deductions. The genuinely self-employed get almost none of it. Status depends on the reality of the arrangement — control, personal service, and mutuality of obligation — not on the label in the contract.
Getting this wrong costs real money in both directions, which is why it is litigated so often. A contract that calls you self-employed does not make you self-employed if the day-to-day reality is that you are told when to turn up, cannot send someone else, and are integrated into the business like everyone else. Tribunals look at what actually happens.
Step by step
- Ask whether you must do the work personally.A genuine, unfettered right to send a substitute points strongly away from employee and worker status. A right that exists on paper but is never usable in practice does not count.
- Ask how much control there is.Who decides what you do, when, where and how. High control points to employment. Being told an outcome and left to deliver it points the other way.
- Ask whether there is mutuality of obligation.Is the business obliged to offer work and are you obliged to accept it? A continuing obligation on both sides is a hallmark of employment. Its absence between engagements is what makes many casual arrangements worker rather than employee status.
- Look at the surrounding facts.Who provides equipment, who bears financial risk, whether you can profit from doing the job more efficiently, whether you work for others, whether you are integrated into the organisation.
- Map the status to the rights.Employees: everything, including redundancy pay, statutory sick pay, family leave and unfair dismissal after qualifying service. Workers: minimum wage, paid holiday, rest breaks, protection from unlawful deductions and whistleblowing protection, plus auto-enrolment if they qualify. Self-employed: contract terms plus health and safety and discrimination protections in some contexts.
- Note that tax status is a separate question.HMRC decides employment status for tax using its own tests, and it is possible to be employed for tax purposes and not an employee for employment rights purposes. HMRC's CEST tool addresses the tax question only.
- Challenge it through the right route.If you believe you have been mislabelled, an employment tribunal can determine status, and Acas early conciliation comes first. For the tax side, HMRC is the route. Get free advice before starting either.
Questions people ask
Does my contract decide my employment status?
No. The label is evidence, but tribunals look at what actually happens. A written substitution clause that has never once been used, and would not be permitted if tried, carries little weight.
Do workers get sick pay and redundancy pay?
Not redundancy pay, which is an employee right. Statutory sick pay depends on being classed as an employee for those purposes, which is a narrower test than worker status.
Can I be self-employed for tax and a worker for rights?
Yes. The two systems use different tests, and this combination is common in platform and gig work.