Rebecca Thornley-Gibson said there was currently an “epidemic” of legal cases about the employment status of workers for high-profile “gig economy” companies such as Uber and Deliveroo.

Taxi app Uber has already lost an employment tribunal decision in the UK which ruled that its workers were not self-employed and they were entitled to the national living wage and holiday pay. However, Uber is appealing against this ruling, which will be heard in September.

“Homeworkers may well be the next ones to come along,” said Thornley-Gibson, head of employment at Ince & Co. “I would not be surprised to see a homeworker case coming along soon.”

She added that the key issue would be whether homeworkers had a “lack of control over how they work”, particularly if they worked exclusively for one company or were involved in a role where “they were given a script” to use.