Redundancy Rights - Types of Workers

Do redundancy rights apply to all types of workers?

Basic statutory employment rights are available to most employees and workers. Redundancy rights, however, are only available to certain types of employees and only after they have met qualifying requirements, such as their length of service. It is important that you are aware of the effect of your employment status on your redundancy rights before accepting a role.

Redundancy Rights

An employee is someone who has a contract of employment with their employer and benefit from a wide range of statutory employment rights. A worker may have a contract with the employer but does not qualify as an employee or have the full range of statutory rights, including redundancy rights.

The difference between a worker and an employee is hard to qualify. The courts have devised various tests to determine whether an individual is a worker or an employee if there is a contract between the parties. One test is the test of ‘mutual obligations’. If there is a mutual expectation of rights and obligations between the employer and individual, then the individual can be considered as an employee. For example, if the employer expects the individual to accept a certain amount of work and the individual expects the company to provide the work, this criteria will be satisfied. An employee must be fully integrated into the company or organisation. An agency or freelance worker or a casual worker falls into the category of worker and is not considered to be an employee.

Redundancy Rights in UK

Workers (as opposed to employees) still have some basic statutory rights. Various pieces of anti-discrimination legislation protect workers from being discriminated against in the workplace because of their disability, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation etc. This protection applies to all aspects of employment, including the application process. Workers also are entitled to have their health and safety protected by their employer. The Working Time Regulations impose limits on the number of hours workers can work and entitles them to rest periods. The Working Time Regulations also give workers the same right to paid holiday leave as employees. Workers also have the right to the national minimum wage. In addition, workers have protection against the unlawful deduction of their wages.

Employees have certain statutory rights that do not apply to workers. These include the right to maternity or paternity leave. However, workers may be entitled to statutory maternity or paternity pay in certain circumstances. Employees also have statutory protection against unfair dismissal and are entitled to statutory sick pay. Employers must follow the minimum statutory procedures for dismissal and discipline when dealing with employees. There is not statutory requirement for these minimum procedures to be used for workers. Similarly, workers do not have the same redundancy rights.