Glossary · UK
What is Worker Status?
The middle category of UK employment status, between "employee" and genuinely self-employed, that carries some but not all statutory employment rights.
Full Definition
UK law recognises three broad employment statuses, and which one applies to a person doing work determines the statutory rights they hold: an "employee" works under a contract of employment and has the fullest set of rights, including protection from unfair dismissal (after the qualifying period) and statutory redundancy pay; a genuinely self-employed contractor runs their own business, invoices for services, and has very few statutory employment protections because they are not in an employment relationship at all; and in between sits the "worker" (sometimes called a "limb (b) worker", after its definition in section 230(3)(b) of the Employment Rights Act 1996), someone who personally performs work or services for another party under a contract, but who is not genuinely running their own business in relation to that work. Workers are entitled to the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage, paid annual leave, rest breaks, protection from unlawful deductions from wages, whistleblowing protection, and auto-enrolment into a workplace pension where eligible, but -- unlike employees -- they generally cannot claim unfair dismissal or statutory redundancy pay, and have no right to a minimum notice period. Employment status for these purposes is not simply whatever label a contract uses: tribunals and courts look at the reality of the working relationship, including the degree of control the engager has, whether the individual must do the work personally (rather than sending a substitute), and whether there is "mutuality of obligation" between the parties, and can find someone to be a worker even where their contract describes them as "self-employed" or an "independent contractor" -- a pattern seen in high-profile cases involving gig-economy platforms such as Uber and delivery couriers. Getting worker status right matters for both sides: misclassifying a worker as self-employed can expose an engager to backdated holiday pay and minimum wage claims, while the correct status also affects the PAYE and National Insurance treatment of the individual's pay.