Legislation – Employment Rights Act 2025
Changes to legislation:
Employment Rights Act 2025, Section 55 is up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 01 April 2026. There are changes that may be brought into force at a future date. Changes that have been made appear in the content and are referenced with annotations.
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Part 3Pay and conditions in particular sectors
Chapter 2Social care workers
Supplementary and general
55Interpretation of this Chapter
(1)
In this Chapter—
“contract of employment” means a contract of service or apprenticeship, whether express or implied, and (if it is express) whether oral or in writing;
“employer”, in relation to a worker, means the person by whom the worker is (or, where the employment has ceased, was) employed;
“employment” means employment under a worker’s contract; and “employed” is to be read accordingly;
“enactment” means—
(a)
an Act of Parliament,
(b)
a Measure or Act of the National Assembly for Wales or an Act of Senedd Cymru, or
(c)
an Act of the Scottish Parliament;
“official”, in relation to a trade union, has the meaning given by section 119 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992;
“social care worker” has the meaning given by section 42;
“trade union” has the meaning given by section 1 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992;
“worker” (except in the phrases “agency worker”, “relevant social care worker” and “social care worker”) means an individual who has entered into or works under (or, where the employment has ceased, worked under)—
(a)
a contract of employment, or
(b)
any other contract, whether express or implied and (if it is express) whether oral or in writing, whereby the individual undertakes to do or perform personally any work or services for another party to the contract whose status is not by virtue of the contract that of a client or customer of any profession or business undertaking carried on by the individual;
and any reference to a worker’s contract is to be read accordingly.
(2)
Any reference in this Chapter to an agreement that has been ratified is, in a case where the agreement is ratified in part, a reference to so much of the agreement as has been ratified.