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 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 are entitled to:
- 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
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
- make statutory flexible working requests
- protection against dismissal or suffering any 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.
You can also read GOV.UK guidance on employment status and employment rights.