UK government employment status reforms could reshape self-employment engagements

Helen Corden and Emma Malczewski, employment law experts at Pinsent Masons, were commenting after the government launched its long awaited consultation on reforms to the employment status framework for employment rights as part of its wider Make Work Pay agenda.

• Read more: what the Employment Rights Act means for your business

The consultation seeks views on proposals to place less emphasis on ‘personal service’ when determining worker status, introduce a presumption of worker status, and strengthen protections for genuinely self-employed individuals.

The proposals are the most significant review of employment status for employment rights in years and could alter the legal tests that have largely evolved through case law to distinguish between employees, workers and the self-employed.

At the heart of the consultation is a proposal to reduce the weight given to personal service when determining whether an individual qualifies as a worker. The government is concerned that substitution clauses are used to create the illusion of self-employment, even where the reality of the working arrangement points towards a relationship of control and dependency.

“The proposals could significantly alter the risks associated with engaging individuals as self-employed,” said Corden. “By reducing the emphasis on personal service and giving greater weight to factors such as control, the reforms could make it easier for some individuals currently treated as self-employed to qualify as workers.”

The consultation also proposes introducing a presumption of worker status for employment rights purposes. Under that approach, the burden would shift onto the engager to demonstrate that an individual is genuinely self-employed, rather than requiring the individual to establish that they are a worker.

“This proposed reform could be even more significant for businesses. The starting position would be that someone is a worker, with the associated employment rights, unless the ‘employer’ can prove otherwise, with tougher penalties for getting it wrong,” Corden said.

The government is also seeking views on strengthening enforcement measures and on the role that the proposed Fair Work Agency could play in addressing employment status disputes and non-compliance.

Alongside reforms to worker status, the government is considering extending certain protections to genuinely self-employed individuals. Proposals include a mandatory written statement of terms, alongside potential extensions of blacklisting and health and safety protections.

Malczewski said: “Alongside potential additional penalties for repeated misclassification and a possible role for the Fair Work Agency in tackling non-compliance, employers that rely heavily on self-employed contractors may need to look particularly carefully at whether their contractual arrangements reflect the reality of how those individuals work.”

Although the government’s original proposal to create a single worker status does not form part of the current consultation, ministers describe that reform as a longer-term objective. However, as this does not form part of the current consultation, for now at least the three tier system of employee, worker and self-employed looks set to survive the status reforms.

The consultation is open until 8 January 2027.