There is a story about a dismissed employee, years ago. He sued. Eventually the case reached the House of Lords (I suppose he was on legal aid). He was actually sitting in the public gallery when the speeches were delivered.

Now in English labour law one of the key distinctions is between an employee and a self-employed person. The former are termed "servants" and the latter "contractors".

So speech the first starrts , and gets to the bit about "the action of this servant" - and up pops Fred in the public gallery and yells "I'm nobody's f****ng servant".

That's the point. You don't insult somebody by saying or implying that they are a servant.