As new padel clubs continue to open and expand across the UK, operators are building teams to support their growing venues. Receptionists, maintenance staff and hospitality teams will commonly be engaged as workers or employees, but the position can be less straightforward when it comes to coaches and training staff, who are often treated as self-employed contractors.
Jack Latham, Senior Associate in Myerson Solicitors’ Employment Law team, explains the employment status risks for padel operators and the steps clubs can take to protect their business.
On paper, this model can look attractive: coaches may appear to have freedom over their hours, while club owners avoid the administrative and financial burden of payroll, pensions and statutory benefits. However, relying on self-employment can create significant legal risk.
Misclassifying staff can expose a business to employment claims. If an employment tribunal or HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) decides that a “self-employed” padel coach is in reality a worker or employee, the club may face backdated payments, including holiday pay, tax exposure, penalties and reputational damage.
With major employment law reforms continuing to reshape the UK workplace landscape, understanding how employment status is assessed, and ensuring that a club’s day-to-day practices match the legal position, is no longer optional. It is a core business risk.
The three employment statuses
Under UK employment law, individuals providing services generally fall into one of three categories, each with different rights and obligations:
⦁ Employee: Works under a contract of service and benefits from the broadest range of statutory protections, including paid holiday, statutory sick pay and, where applicable, protection from unfair dismissal.
⦁ Worker: A hybrid category. Workers are usually required to perform work personally, but the relationship falls short of full employment. They are entitled to key protections such as National Minimum Wage, paid holiday and pension auto-enrolment, but generally do not have unfair dismissal protection or statutory redundancy rights.
⦁ Self-employed independent contractor: Genuinely in business on their own account, responsible for their own tax, insurance, business risk and profit or loss. They do not benefit from statutory employment rights.
The key tests of employment status for padel coaches
One of the most common misconceptions is that employment obligations can be avoided simply by labelling a contract “self-employed” or “independent contractor”.
Courts and tribunals look at the substance of the working relationship, not just the wording of the contract. In Uber v Aslam, the Supreme Court confirmed that worker status is a matter of statutory protection rather than contractual labelling. If a dispute arises, a tribunal will look beyond the contract and scrutinise how the club operates in practice, using three primary legal tests:
Test 1: Personal service and substitution
To be classified as an employee or a worker, the individual must be contractually obliged to perform the work personally. Padel clubs often include substitution clauses in coaching agreements, allowing a coach to send someone else to cover a session. However, tribunals will assess whether that right is genuine or heavily restricted:
If a coach can send any suitably qualified substitute at any time, for any reason, without the club’s approval or veto, that may be inconsistent with worker or employee status.
If the coach can only send a substitute when they are unable to work, or if the substitute requires the club’s approval, the right is more limited. This is common in padel clubs that need to maintain quality, safeguarding and safety standards, and it is generally consistent with personal service.
Test 2: Mutuality of Obligation
For employee status, there must be mutuality of obligation: broadly, the club must be obliged to provide work or pay, and the coach must be obliged to accept and perform that work.
However, a casual or irregular coaching schedule does not automatically rule out worker status. In Nursing and Midwifery Council v Somerville, the Court of Appeal confirmed that a worker does not need to be promised future work. Even where a coach is free to turn down individual sessions, a binding contract may arise when they accept a session and perform the work.
In other words, even sporadic coaching assignments can create employment law obligations during the periods when the work is accepted and performed.
Test 3: Control and integration
If a club exercises significant control over when, where and how a coach works, this may point towards worker or employee status. Does the club dictate the coaching schedule? Are coaches required to follow specific club curriculums, lesson plans, disciplinary policies or codes of conduct? Are coaches presented as part of the club’s team? If they wear club-branded clothing, use club-provided equipment, appear on staff rotas or undergo performance reviews, those factors can indicate integration into the business.
What happens if you get it wrong?
If “self-employed” padel coaches or staff are reclassified as workers or employees, the consequences can be both retrospective and forward-looking. A status challenge can trigger a domino effect of liabilities across contracts, pay, benefits, tax, pensions and workplace policies.
Written particulars of employment
Employees and workers are entitled to receive a written statement of employment particulars from day one. Failing to provide this document on or before the first day can create immediate compliance risk. A compliant statement should set out key terms such as duties, hours of work, pay, holiday entitlement, sick pay, notice provisions and place of work.
Holiday pay exposure
Genuinely self-employed contractors have no right to paid annual leave. Workers and employees, however, have strict statutory rights to paid holiday under the Working Time Regulations. If a coach is reclassified, they may seek backdated holiday pay for the period of their engagement, subject to the applicable legal limits. This can be particularly difficult where coaches work irregular hours, and the club has not kept accurate records because it assumed the individual was self-employed. Without reliable records of hours worked, holiday accrued, holiday taken and holiday pay calculations, defending a claim becomes much harder.
Statutory Sick Pay
Employment law reform proposals include changes to Statutory Sick Pay, including widening eligibility and removing the waiting period so that SSP is payable from the first day of sickness absence. Self-employed coaches receive no statutory sick pay. If an individual is in fact an employee and becomes entitled to SSP, the club must have processes in place to manage absence, calculate payments and maintain appropriate records. For lean padel operations, this can create both administrative and financial pressure.
National Minimum Wage (NMW) and Wage Audits
Workers and employees must be paid at least the applicable National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage rate. If they are reclassified, the club could face arrears, penalties and reputational consequences.
Pension Auto-Enrolment
Unlike genuinely self-employed contractors, eligible workers must be assessed for pension auto-enrolment. Reclassification may require the club to address unpaid employer contributions and associated administrative issues, which can accumulate over time.
Unfair Dismissal
Historically, employees generally needed two years’ service to claim ordinary unfair dismissal. Proposed reforms to unfair dismissal rights would significantly reduce that qualifying period, meaning clubs may have less flexibility to end employment without following a fair and well-documented process.
Practical checklist for padel clubs and leisure operators
To reduce these risks, padel operators should take proactive steps now:
⦁ Conduct a coaching structure audit: Review the practical reality of how self-employed coaches work. Do they control their own schedules, carry genuine financial risk and market their services independently, or are they integrated into the club like staff?
⦁ Issue written particulars on day one: For anyone who is a worker or employee, including casual and part-time staff, put in place a reliable onboarding process to issue written terms on or before the first day of work.
⦁ Upgrade record-keeping systems: For casual or variable-hours staff, use systems that accurately track hours worked, holiday accrued, holiday taken and holiday pay calculations.
⦁ Review substitution clauses: Ensure contracts reflect reality. If a contract gives a right of substitution that the club would not genuinely honour in practice, a tribunal may give it little weight.
⦁ Review tax and indemnity provisions: Seek advice on contractual protections, tax status assessments and indemnities where appropriate, while recognising that contractual wording alone will not determine employment status.
Key takeaway
For padel clubs, engaging coaches on a self-employed basis can offer flexibility, but only where the reality of the working relationship supports that status. Simply describing a coach as self-employed in their contract will not determine their employment status.
As the sector continues to grow and employment law develops, operators should regularly review both their coaching agreements and day-to-day working practices. Taking advice at an early stage can help clubs identify potential employment status issues, reduce the risk of unexpected liabilities and put appropriate arrangements in place as their teams grow.
If you operate a padel business and would like advice on employment status, coaching agreements, onboarding or compliance, please contact our Employment Team.
This is really interesting from an employer/ club/ management point of view.
May we have an article from the self employed cia h point of view please