The particular status of an individual will determine what level of employment rights they have. All employment rights apply to employees while sole traders / self employed / sch D only have limited employment rights (although they have slightly more rights if they are regarded as having ‘worker’ status).
In relation to loan-out agreements, the individual will generally be an employee of their personal service company. This means that they may be entitled to a full suite of employment rights but the engaging production entity is not responsible for providing these – that responsibility lies with the personal service company.
The key rights to be aware of in respect of employees and freelancers are set out below:
Employee:
- holiday pay;
- work place pension;
- statutory sick pay;
- national minimum wage
- 48 hour working week and rest breaks;
- maternity / paternity / adoption leave and pay;
- health and safety protection;
- discrimination protection – race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation and age;
- right to be automatically enrolled in qualifying pension scheme and receive employer pension contributions once auto-enrolment applies to organisation;
- right not to be unfairly dismissed; and
- redundancy pay (after 2 years’ service).
Self-employed ‘worker’:
- holiday pay;
- work place pension;
- 48 hour working week and rest breaks;
- health and safety protection;
- discrimination protection – race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation and age; and
- right to be automatically enrolled in qualifying pension scheme and receive employer pension contributions once auto-enrolment applies to organisation.
Self-employed ‘freelancer’:
- health and safety protection; and
- discrimination protection – race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation and age.
