What are my main Employment rights as an Employee, Worker or Freelancer?

Whatever your employment status, whether you’re an employee, worker or freelance/contractor, you have rights at work that are protected by law.

Below is a comprehensive summary of what you’re entitled to, plus links to articles that cover each in more detail.

The main legal rights of an employee

As an employee, you have the following legal rights:

• To the rights of workers (see below)
• To a written statement explaining your main terms and conditions – this must be provided by or on Day 1 of your employment (this will apply to workers as well). A contract of employment is an agreement between you and your employer. There’s always a contract between you and your employer, even if you don’t have anything in writing, because you’ve agreed to work for your employer in return for them paying you. The terms of an employment contract set out what you and your employer have agreed and what you can expect of each other; your rights and duties.
• Maternity Leave/Pay, Adoption Leave/Pay, Paternity Leave/Pay and Shared Parental Leave/Pay and other family leave.
• Antenatal leave for mothers, fathers/partners
• Time off to care for dependants
• The right to apply to work flexibly
• The right to request time off to undertake study or training for employees working in companies with an average of 250+ employees
• Protection if you are employed on a Fixed Term Contract – which aim to prevent you receiving less favourable treatment in comparison with permanent colleagues
• The right not to be unfairly dismissed – certain ‘agency workers’ also have a limited right to unfair dismissal. Military reservists also have dismissal rights connected to their military service. The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act ensures that most people who’ve received sentences or cautions are not unfairly dismissed.
• For your employer to operate a fair disciplinary and dismissal policy
• Access to a Grievance Procedure at work
• Statutory Redundancy Pay and other rules about Redundancies including protection for those on maternity/family leave.
• If you’re a Sunday worker, there are rules that the Employer needs to follow, more details here.
• Time off for public duties, e.g. Magistrate duties; to attend jury service; for Trade Union activities (where your employer recognises a Trade Union, Union representatives have a statutory right to take paid time off to carry out trade union duties and training)
• An itemised pay statement – you can read more details on what should be included on a payslip here.
• Plus all those rights that a worker has (below).

NB: Often, employers will give benefits/terms to employees that are more generous than the legal minimum entitlements.

The main legal rights of a worker

See our guide to the Agency Workers Regulations, which give certain ‘agency workers’ rights to equal treatment for pay, working hours, night work, rest breaks, paid holidays, paid time off for antenatal appointments, the right to apply for internal vacancies and access to internal facilities, and give them limited unfair dismissal rights in relation to the regulations.

Workers and employees rights

Workers and employees have the following rights:

• To the National Minimum/Living Wage
• From 6th April 2020 the right to a written statement by or on Day 1 of your employment
• The right to be automatically enrolled in a pension scheme, and receive Employers Contributions in certain circumstances
• Rest breaks and paid holiday under the Working Time Regulations
• Protection from unauthorised deductions of pay
• Maternity and Adoption Pay (not leave) and Paternity Pay (not leave)
• Antenatal leave (for agency workers)
• Protection against less favourable treatment if you work part-time
• To comply with the Parental Leave (EU directive) Regulations, an agency worker who has at least one years service and returned from unpaid parental leave has the right to request flexible working. As your employer is likely to be the agency, not the client (end-hirer), it’s their decision, although this can get complicated as they’ll need knowledge of whether this is acceptable to the client
• Statutory Sick Pay
• Protection against less favourable treatment if you “whistleblow” (i.e. make a disclosure in the public interest)
• Not to be unlawfully discriminated against on grounds of race, sex, marriage/civil partnerships, maternity/pregnancy, disability, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, age, religion/belief, and to receive equal pay the same as with members of the opposite sex (if you can show they are performing similar work of equal value.
• From 26th October 2024 there is a new law on Workplace Sexual Harassment and you can see the details here.
• Protection under Health and Safety law. For details of the Health and Safety legislation in the UK, take a look at the official gov.uk website.
• Protection against discrimination for membership or non-membership of a Trade Union. Job applicants are protected from being refused employment because of their trade union membership, and possibly because of their activities related to trade union membership. Since the 6th April 2010, the blacklisting of workers from employment as a result of their union membership or activities is prevented. If a worker is blacklisted and suffers a detriment at work as a result (e.g. been refused employment, been subject to detriment or unfairly dismissed because of being on a blacklist), they can complain to a tribunal for damages and/or restraining or prevention orders against the blacklist
• To be accompanied at a disciplinary or grievance procedure hearing (including home-workers).
• From 1st October 2024, the right to receive tips, on a fairly allocated basis, which must be paid to the member of staff in the month following the month the tip was received. You can read more details here.

Exclusivity clauses

On 11th January 2016, exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts became illegal (in England, Scotland and Wales) – which means that any clause that stops a worker “doing work or performing services” under another contract (with another employer) or stops the worker from doing so “without the employer’s consent” will be unenforceable by the employer.

This means that zero-hours workers will have a right not to be unfairly dismissed if the reason for this dismissal is that they failed to comply with an exclusivity clause (no qualifying period needed); they also have the right not to face any detriment because they failed to comply with an exclusivity clause.

In May 2022 the Government  said that they would extend the existing ban on exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts, to all types of contracts, where a worker has a guaranteed weekly income at or below the lower earnings limit for National Insurance purposes (currently £123 per week).  This came into effect on 5th December 2022.

Workers Protection under Health & Safety law

In December 2020, The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain brought a case concerning the health and safety of gig workers that could be exposed to COVID-19. The Court decided that workers are entitled to the same protection as employees against suffering detriment if they take steps to protect themselves by refusing to work when faced with serious danger of being exposed to COVID-19.

The Court also decided they are entitled to be provided with any necessary PPE by their Employers. As many gig workers are courier drivers and cyclists, this was an important judgement.

In March 2021 the government published draft legislation that will allow workers to have the same protections, already given to employees, against ‘detrimental’ treatment on the grounds of health and safety, following the Independent Workers case above.  This will apply in all situations and is not just Covid-19 related.

The new legislation will be effective from 31st May 2021. This means that the Health and Safety at work Act 1974 (and amendments) and the health and safety measures in the Employment Rights Act 1996 (section 44) will apply to workers as well as employees; so workers cannot be subject to any ‘detriment’ by their employer on the grounds that they left or refused to attend their place of work where they reasonably believed there were circumstances of serious and imminent danger, or, they took appropriate steps to protect themselves or others from what they reasonably believed to be circumstances of serious and imminent danger. Workers will have the right to bring a tribunal claim if they believe their employer has subjected them to a detriment. We will update this when we know the date this will be enforced.

The main legal rights of the self-employed (freelancers and contractors)

The self-employed don’t have employment rights as such, as they’re seen to be their own boss and can make decisions on fees, holidays etc. They won’t, therefore, generally, be entitled to:

• The client company’s sick leave, company maternity pay, holiday pay or company pension provisions (some freelancers may be ‘workers’ and so entitled to holiday pay and pension contributions, in certain circumstances – see below)
• The legal right to use the clients company’s internal disciplinary and grievance schemes
• The legal right not to be dismissed (always, however, read the contract of service you’ve agreed, as this may contain clauses relating to termination of your agreement and time-periods).

Legal protections

That being said, the self-employed do have legal protection for the following:

• They shouldn’t be discriminated against in the workplace in most cases, and can make a claim to an Employment Tribunal if they feel they have been. This protection only applies to freelancers who fall under Part 5 of the Equality Act 2010 – that is, those who are described as ‘contract workers’ and are contracted personally to do the work. For example, a Contractor cannot claim discrimination against the employer if they’re contracted for the provision of services and hire some else, or sub-contract someone else, to do the work; the must do the work personally.
• They’re entitled to a safe and healthy working environment (as above) – see hse.gov.uk
• They should be paid for the work that you’ve done.

Freelancer’s may also be entitled to Statutory Maternity Allowance if they’re pregnant and have recently left an engagement.

Other information for freelancers

• On the occasion that you’re classed as a ‘worker’ (for employment rights) but self-employed (for tax purposes), you may be entitled to some of the above workers rights as if you perform the work personally. It’s quite common in the Film and TV Industry, for example, for freelancers to be classed as workers and receive paid holiday
• If you’re registered as a limited company and provide your services on a freelance basis to a client organisation (as a provider) then you won’t receive workers right from this organisation – it’s up to you to provide yourself with workers rights as you’re employed by your own limited company.

If you have a dispute with your employer over your rights

Try to resolve the problem first by talking to your manager or Personnel/Human Resources department, if you have one. Your Employer should have its own Grievance Procedure that employees should have access to. You can also talk to your Trade Union or Employee Representative if you have one.

Your local Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) offers free and impartial advice on employment matters – www.citizensadvice.org.uk. ACAS (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) offers free, confidential advice on all employment rights issues. Their helpline is 08457 474747, and their website can be found here.

If you can’t resolve the matter, you may be able to make a claim at an employment tribunal, but this generally needs to take place within three months of the dispute. The Employment Tribunal Service enquiry line is 08457 959775, and their website address is www.employmenttribunals.gov.uk.