Worker status: the three-tier UK test

What it is

Worker status is the legal category between "employee" and "fully self-employed contractor" under UK law. Workers get minimum wage, paid holiday, rest breaks, discrimination protection, whistleblowing protection and, where they qualify, pension auto-enrolment. Workers do not get unfair dismissal, statutory redundancy pay, statutory minimum notice or Statutory Sick Pay in most arrangements. The category matters because platforms love calling everyone "self-employed" in the contract, and courts look past the contract at the real relationship.

How it applies to gig workers

The Supreme Court set the modern test in Uber BV v Aslam [2021] UKSC 5: worker status depends on who sets the price, who controls access to work, whether the worker must do the job personally, and whether the platform disciplines through ratings, penalties and allocation. Uber lost because it controlled all of those. Pimlico Plumbers Ltd v Smith [2018] UKSC 29 said a limited substitution clause does not automatically destroy worker status; personal service in practice is what matters. But in IWGB v CAC [2023] UKSC 43, Deliveroo won because its substitution right was found genuinely wide, killing the personal-service requirement.

The practical map for 2025-26 looks like this. Uber drivers are workers after Aslam. Addison Lee drivers are workers after the 2017 case and the January 2025 plus March 2026 tribunal rulings. Private hire drivers generally follow the Uber line because the control facts are similar. Deliveroo riders are not workers for union recognition, though other rights routes may still exist. Amazon Flex, Just Eat and Stuart drivers sit without a Supreme Court ruling on their exact facts, so their status is decided case by case.

Take a 22 year old Uber driver in Leeds logged in for 38 hours in a week and paid £420 gross. At £12.21 an hour (age 21+ NMW 2025-26), 38 hours of working time should produce £463.98 minimum. The £43.98 shortfall is the kind of gap a worker-status claim is built around. Same week, a 19 year old Deliveroo rider earning £180 does not have the same easy route, because IWGB v CAC makes the first fight "are you even a worker". For tax, none of this changes anything: HMRC still treats most gig income as self-employed trading income. Status for rights and status for tax are different rules, and a tribunal win does not automatically reclassify your HMRC return.

What you should do about it

• Apply the Aslam test honestly: who sets price, who controls access to work, must you do it personally, how is discipline handled.
• Keep weekly records of hours logged in, hours engaged and pay, plus all platform messages.
• If your facts look like worker status and the platform pays you less than £12.21 an hour (age 21+) for working time, start a file for a claim.
• Speak to ADCU, GMB or IWGB, or to Leigh Day, Bates Wells or Farore Law, before the three-months-minus-one-day ACAS clock runs out.
• Keep filing Self Assessment properly, because winning worker status does not change your tax classification.

Last reviewed

19 April 2026

Internal links this page emits:

• Uber BV v Aslam
• the Deliveroo ruling
• Addison Lee 2025-26 rulings
• take the 12-question worker status test
• ACAS Early Conciliation

Primary source used:

• C:\Users\thest\Documents\GigKiln\Research\S3-rights\3.1-uber-ruling.md
• C:\Users\thest\Documents\GigKiln\Research\S3-rights\3.4-worker-rights.md