Two complicated employment statuses. The first problem is the definition of the employment status in labor law. The rights and protection of people working in the UK vary with their status. “Employees” are a specific category of “workers” whose employment and working conditions are precisely determined in the employment contract. Thus, these employees have a payroll, maternity, paternity and adoption leaves, right to flexible work, and layoff pay, to name a few. “Workers” – a general category including people working under a subordinate relation but which, contrary to the notion of ‘employees,’ mostly concerns non-permanent staff, i.e. mostly agency workers – are only entitled to limited protection in terms of pay, working time, paid leave, discrimination – i.e. minimum standards. Self-employed workers, on principle not subordinate – have even fewer rights: limited protection regarding discrimination, and health and safety, no unemployment or sickness benefits, among others. Besides, there are different definitions of these terms in the law. To add to the mix-up, there are also several anomalies in the law: for instance, the rights adopted in 2000 for part-time workers apply to all “workers” while the rights added in 2004 for staff with a fixed-term contract only apply to “employees.”
scrimination, and health and safety, no unemployment or sickness benefits, among others. Besides, there are different definitions of these terms in the law. To add to the mix-up, there are also several anomalies in the law: for instance, the rights adopted in 2000 for part-time workers apply to all “workers” while the rights added in 2004 for staff with a fixed-term contract only apply to “employees.”
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