The Employment Relationship: A Comparative Overview

The issue of who is or is not in an employment relationship has become problematic in recent decades as a result of major changes in work organization as well as in the adequacy of legal regulation in adapting to such changes. In different parts of the world there is increasing difficulty in establishing whether or not an employment relationship exists in situations where the respective rights and an employment relationship exists in situations where the respective rights and obligations of the parties concerned are not clear, where there has been an attempt to disguise the employment relationship, or where inadequacies or gaps exist in the legal framework or in its interpretation or application. Vulnerable workers appear to suffer most in these situations. At the same time, social partners and labour administrators have emphasized that globalization has increased the need for protection against circumvention of national labour legislation by contractual and/or other legal arrangements.

The employment relationship is under ever-closer scrutiny, not only by labour lawyers, but also by workers, employers and the judiciary. Changes in the world of work have modified traditional notions of the employment relationship. These changes in the `standard employment relationship' shape the scope of protection and application of labour legislation and automatically affect the way labour law is implemented.

This book presents the ways the scope of labour legislation applies to the realm of the employment relationship. Terms, notions, definitions, laws and practice in the various regions of the world are herein reported.

Giuseppe Casale is the Director of the Labour Administration and inspection Programme at the ILO, Geneva. He is visiting professor in comparative and international labour law at the universities of Bari, Bologna and Venice. He is author of numerous publications (and co-author of Fundamentals of Labour Administration, ILO, Geneva, 2010).