The Practical Aspect of the Contract of Service and the Contract for Services Available to Purchase

The complications, problems and uncertainties arising out of the distinction between the employee and the independent contractor have been sufficiently analysed. These complications, problems and uncertainties arise because the parties are given the freedom to regulate their own relationships. This is very laudible, but it is this very freedom which is subsequently attacked by the courts or by the legislature. The fact that the courts themselves do not always allow the intention of the parties to prevail shows that this freedom is jeopardised at its very source. Equally the legislature sometimes distinguishes between the status of employee and that of the self employed by giving the former certain rights not given to the latter. Since the distinction is not made in any statutory definition, this means that whether or not a person may benefit from the statutory right would depend upon the court's interpretations of the relationship. This apparent freedom for the parties to regulate their relationship is belied by the realities of the situation. It may be socially expedient for the parties not to be given complete freedom to enable them to establish their relationship since this could lead to such anti‐social activities as tax evasion on the part of the employee or evasion by the employer of his statutory duties towards his employee.