There are three tiers, and the middle one is the surprise
Most people believe the question is employed or self-employed. UK employment law has a category in between, and it carries real rights.
What a worker gets, and what they do not
gov.uk lists it plainly. A worker is entitled to the National Minimum Wage, protection against unlawful deductions from wages, the statutory minimum level of paid holiday, statutory minimum rest breaks, working no more than 48 hours a week on average, protection against unlawful discrimination, whistleblowing protection, and not being treated less favourably for working part-time.
What a worker does not usually get is the job security half: minimum notice periods, protection against unfair dismissal, the right to request flexible working, time off for emergencies, and statutory redundancy pay.
So the distinction bites hardest at the end of an arrangement rather than during it. While the work is running, a worker and an employee look similar on pay. When it stops, they are in completely different positions.
Why this matters on a site
Casual labour, zero-hours staff and labour-only subcontracting are very often worker arrangements rather than genuine self-employment.
Which means paid holiday and minimum wage are owed, by somebody who is confident nothing is owed at all. It is not a technicality and it does not go away because both sides were happy with the arrangement at the time: the rights belong to the individual and cannot be signed away by agreeing to call the job something else.
The paperwork does not decide it
A contract calling somebody self-employed does not make them self-employed. Status is decided by how the work is actually done, and the substance that gets examined is roughly this:
- Control. Who decides how, when and where the work happens.
- Substitution. Whether somebody else could genuinely be sent instead, in practice rather than in a clause nobody would ever use.
- Risk. Who stands to lose money if it goes wrong, and who provides the equipment.
- Obligation. Whether there is any duty to offer work, or to accept it.
A clause allowing substitution that everybody knows would never be permitted is worth nothing, and that is the single most common way an arrangement that is described as self-employment turns out not to be one.
Tax status and employment status are separate questions
This is the one that catches people hardest, and gov.uk states it directly: a person may have a different employment status in tax law.
Being registered self-employed, invoicing for your work, or being paid under CIS answers the tax question. None of it answers whether you are a worker for employment law purposes, and therefore none of it decides whether holiday pay is owed. Two systems, two questions, and one answer does not carry across.
If it is genuinely in dispute
Courts and tribunals make the final decision, and nothing online settles it, because the answer turns on how one particular arrangement actually ran. Acas is the first port of call in England, Scotland and Wales, and the Labour Relations Agency in Northern Ireland.
The useful thing to do beforehand is write down how the work really worked while it is fresh: who set the hours, whether shifts could be refused, whose tools, whether anybody else ever covered.
What follows from the answer
If the answer is worker or employee, the entitlements are calculable. The holiday entitlement calculator works out the 5.6 weeks and what it means for an irregular pattern, and 52-week holiday pay covers what that holiday should actually be paid at, which is the half people get wrong.
If it is employee, continuous service decides which of the longer-service rights have started, and notice period covers what is owed at the end. And if the answer is genuinely self-employed, the tax side starts at do I need to file a tax return.
Common questions
What is a worker, as opposed to an employee?
A middle category that most people have never heard of. gov.uk describes a worker as somebody with a contract or other arrangement to do work or services personally for a reward, while keeping a limited right to send someone else to do the work. Casual staff, zero-hours staff and a great deal of agency labour fall here. It matters because a worker has real statutory rights that a genuinely self-employed person does not.
What rights does a worker actually get?
The National Minimum Wage, protection against unlawful deductions from wages, the statutory minimum level of paid holiday, the statutory minimum rest breaks, working no more than 48 hours a week on average, protection against unlawful discrimination, whistleblowing protection, and not being treated less favourably for working part-time. They may also get statutory pay for sick leave, maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, parental bereavement and neonatal care.
What does a worker not get?
The job security rights, which is the whole distinction. Workers do not usually get minimum notice periods when the work is ending, protection against unfair dismissal, the right to request flexible working, time off for emergencies, or statutory redundancy pay. So a worker is protected on pay and on treatment, and largely unprotected on being let go, which is why the label matters so much at the end of an arrangement rather than during it.
Does my contract decide my status?
No. Status is decided by how the work is actually done rather than by what the paperwork calls it, and a document describing somebody as self-employed does not make them self-employed if the reality is different. What gets looked at is the substance: whether there is genuine control over how and when the work is done, whether a substitute could really be sent, who carries the financial risk, and whether there is any obligation to offer or accept work.
Can I be self-employed for tax and a worker for employment law?
Yes, and gov.uk says so plainly: a person may have a different employment status in tax law. The two systems ask different questions for different purposes, so being registered self-employed, invoicing for your work or being paid under CIS settles the tax position and does not settle whether you are owed holiday pay. People assume one answer covers both, and that assumption is behind a lot of unpaid holiday.
Who decides if there is a disagreement?
Courts and tribunals make the final decision on employment status, and Acas is the place to go first in England, Scotland and Wales, or the Labour Relations Agency in Northern Ireland. Nothing on this page or anywhere else online settles it, because the answer turns on the specific facts of how one particular arrangement worked in practice. What is worth doing beforehand is writing down how the work actually ran, while it is fresh.