Protective Function of Labour Law and Current Problems of Employee-Employer Relationship

Abstract

The protective function is the dominant function of the labour law. It is of great importance not only for the creation and further development of the labour law, but also for its correct interpretation. The protective function of the labour law implies that, in contrast to other branches of the private law, the employer has substantially more obligations towards his/her employee. The employee “pays” for his/her above-standard social status in the employment relationship by the obligation of subordination. Therefore, the labour-law relations are not characterised by equality of subjects, as in other branches of the private law. Also the principle of freedom in the form of contractual freedom is significantly more tightened in the labour law than in other branches of the private law. In the second part of the paper, the author analyses practical current problems of the labour law which arise especially in connection with the introduction of new digital forms of work and suggests also ways of their solution in legislative practice.

Keywords

• labour law
• protective function
• mandatory nature of legal regulation
• dispositive nature of legal regulation
• digital era
• new technologies
• protection of weaker party
• self-employed person
• employee
• traditional labour-law relations
• flexible work
• definition of worker in the european union law
• rights guaranteed by law to employees