Question 1

What is the difference between an employee, a worker and self-employed?

Accepted Answer

In UK law these are three distinct employment statuses with sharply different rights, and **what your contract calls you does not decide it** — a tribunal looks at the reality of the arrangement.

**Employee.** The fullest set of rights. Works under a contract of employment, with mutuality of obligation (the employer must provide work, you must accept it), personal service, and control over how the work is done. Entitled to: statutory sick pay, maternity and paternity leave and pay, redundancy pay, statutory notice, protection from unfair dismissal after the qualifying period, and the right to request flexible working.

**Worker.** A middle category that surprises people, covering casual, agency and many gig-economy arrangements. A worker performs services personally but without the full mutuality of an employee. Entitled to: **National Minimum Wage, paid holiday, rest breaks, protection from unlawful deductions, whistleblowing and discrimination protection, and pension auto-enrolment**. Not entitled to redundancy pay, statutory notice, or unfair dismissal protection.

**Self-employed.** Running your own business. Very few employment rights — essentially health and safety protection and discrimination protection in some contexts. Responsible for your own tax and National Insurance, can send a substitute, takes financial risk, and works for multiple clients.

**The factors that actually determine status:** control over how, when and where you work; whether you must perform personally or may send a **substitute** (a genuine, unfettered substitution right strongly indicates self-employment); mutuality of obligation; who provides equipment; whether you bear financial risk; and integration into the organisation.

**This has been heavily litigated.** The Supreme Court's *Uber BV v Aslam* (2021) held that drivers were workers despite contracts describing them as self-employed, because the reality showed control.

**Tax status is assessed separately** by HMRC and can differ from employment-law status — including under IR35 for those working through a personal service company.

Question 2

What is IR35, and who does it affect?

Accepted Answer

IR35 — formally the off-payroll working rules — is UK tax legislation addressing people who work through their own company but who, stripped of that company, would look like employees of the client.

Question 3

What is industrial action, and what makes a strike lawful?

Accepted Answer

Collective action by workers to put pressure on an employer — and in the UK it is lawful only where a detailed set of statutory requirements has been met, any one of which can render it unlawful. The

Question 4

What is a zero-hours contract and what rights come with it?

Accepted Answer

A zero-hours contract is an arrangement with no guaranteed minimum hours. The employer offers work when available; how much obligation exists on either side depends on the contract's terms. The two

Question 5

What is a probation period and what rights do you have during it?

Accepted Answer

A probation period is a contractual arrangement at the start of a job, during which both sides assess whether it works. It is a contractual concept, not a legal status — which is the point most

Question 6

What are your rights to sick pay?

Accepted Answer

Statutory Sick Pay is a legal minimum, paid by your employer, not a benefit from the state — and it is considerably less than most people assume, which is why the difference between statutory and

Question 7

What is the difference between the gender pay gap and equal pay?

Accepted Answer

Equal pay is a legal right to the same pay for the same or equivalent work; the gender pay gap is a statistical measure of average earnings across a whole workforce. An organisation can comply fully

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