People with 'employee' employment status have:
- more employment rights than workers or self-employed people
- more obligations towards their employer
What makes someone an employee
Someone is likely to be legally classed as an employee if most of these things apply:
- they're required to work regularly unless they're on leave
- they can usually expect work to be consistently available
- they cannot unreasonably refuse to do the work
- they get statutory paid holiday – they might also have additional contractual holiday entitlement
- they're subject to the employer's discipline and grievance procedures
- they need to give notice to their employer if they want to take maternity, paternity or adoption leave
- they cannot get someone else to do their job
- their employer decides how, when and where they do their work
- their employer provides the materials, tools and equipment for their work
If most of these do not apply, someone is more likely to be a worker or self-employed.
Employment rights
Employees' rights include:
- a written statement of employment particulars outlining their job rights and responsibilities
- National Minimum Wage
- paid holiday
- payslips
- protection for whistleblowing
- protection against discrimination
- protection from less favourable treatment for working part time
- making statutory flexible working requests
As long as they meet any eligibility criteria, they're also entitled to:
- statutory sick pay (SSP)
- ordinary parental leave
- shared parental leave and pay
- maternity, paternity and adoption leave and pay
- parental bereavement leave and pay
- time off for dependants
- time off for public duties
- redundancy pay after 2 years' continuous service, if their role becomes redundant
- claim unfair dismissal or automatically unfair dismissal
- get the minimum notice period if they're dismissed or made redundant
- protection against dismissal or detriment for taking action over a health and safety issue
Detriment related to health and safety
An employer must not cause an employee 'detriment' because the employee:
- reasonably believes being at work or doing certain tasks would put them in serious and imminent danger
- takes reasonable steps over a health and safety issue, for example complaining about unsafe working conditions
- informs their employer about a health and safety issue in an appropriate way
Detriment means someone experiences one or both of the following:
- being treated worse than before
- having their situation made worse
Examples of detriment could be:
- an employer reduces someone's hours
- experiencing bullying
- experiencing harassment
- an employer turns down someone's training requests without good reason
- someone is overlooked for promotions or development opportunities
An employee could have a case for automatically unfair dismissal if they're dismissed in these circumstances. They do not need to have worked for their employer for 2 years to make this claim.
Get more advice and support
If you have any questions about employment status, contact the Acas helpline.
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