M. Who is 'the employer'?

M.     Who is 'the employer'?

The emphasis so far in this section has been on whether the individual performing the work in question qualifies as an 'employee', a 'worker' 'self employed' or some other classification (or, ultimately, none). Throughout this, the engaging person or (more likely) body has been referred to as 'the employer'. The statutory definition of 'employer' in the ERA 1996 s 230(4) Q [854] is simply 'the person by whom the employee or worker is (or where the employment has ceased, was) employed'. Beyond that, the identity of the employer is a question of fact. Normally, this is not an issue in practice because it will be obvious who is the employer (or, in litigation, more likely who was the employer) and therefore against whom proceedings are to be brought. There can, however, be less straightforward cases where the identity of the employer comes into contention, for example where there is a complicated corporate structure with more than one corporate entity being potentially the employer for legal purposes (sometimes with the employee or worker having been in ignorance of these subtleties). In one particular