mickjoebill,
'Aerial work' is an activity "...in which an aircraft is used for specialized services such as agriculture, construction, photography, surveying, observation and patrol, seach and rescue, aerial advertisement, etc" (although in Europe it is likely that SAR will be excluded from the AW categorisation in favour of State Activity); it may be 'commercial' or 'private'.
What is confusing is the title you have given to the thread; the term 'aerial work' should not be used for the carriage of passengers (although there are well know exceptions contained in JAR-OPS 3.001(a)(2) and (3) which are deemed to fall into the categorisation of aerial work shown above). These personnel were, in the terminology used in the JAR-OPS 4 proposal, considered as 'task specialists' - i.e. not passengers.
Passengers can be carried in the 'private' or in the 'Commercial Air Transport (CAT)' (Public Transport in the UK) categories.
'Commercial' or 'private' is a separate issue from that of 'CAT' or 'aerial work'.
Jim