The Status of Employee Available to Purchase

A distinction has to be drawn between a contract of service or a contract of employment on the one hand and a contract for services on the other. In the former situation the person employed is an employee, (or a ‘servant’ as he is often referred to in case law), in the latter he is an indpendent contractor. The particular requirement of a contract of service is the right of the employer, (or ‘the master’) to have, inter alia, residual control, (which may in some instances be reduced to being a mere formality), over the employee, although as will be examined later, other factors are equally applicable.