Employees, Employers, and Beyond: Identifying the Parties to the Contract of Employment

English law has come to identify employees and employers as parties privy to the contract of employment. The relevant statutory provisions are of surprisingly little assistance in defining and identifying employees and employers. Instead, the task is left to the common law, drawing on the contract of employment or service. The chapter explores those problems, as viewed through the lens of the role of the contract of employment in defining which parties, if any, will be able to come within the scope of employment law norms in any particular setting. The received bilateral and personal understanding of the structure of the contract of employment has been the main driver behind its narrow definition of the concepts of employee and employer alike, shaping the relevant common-law tests in a way which excludes many complex employment settings from labour law’s protective scope, or placing them with limited degrees of legal protection.