The New Employment Relationship: How "Atypical" Work Contracts Challenge Employment Law, Labour Law and Social Security Systems

by Anne Meier

"Flexibilisation," the leitmotiv of contemporary employment, is used by policy makers, employers, human resource managers, and the European money lenders. Part-time employment, limited-duration contracts, temporary work, and freelancing are only a few examples among the "new" forms of employment contracts. But, what does this word actually mean in terms of employment and labor law? Using a comparative legal methodology with a focus on Swiss law, this study shows how flexibility challenges the three levels which, together, form the employment the law of the individual work contract (employment law), the law of collective bargaining (labor law), and social security law (in particular, old-age and unemployment insurance). Inspired by the Decent Work principles of the International Labor Organization, the book explores how the law can newly define the employment relationship and its contents. The study aims to grasp a definition of the new employment relationship and its contents, as well as to encourage more flexibility in social security systems as a counter-part to the flexibility in the individual employment relationship. The features of the "new" employment relationship thereby appear as possibly combining the wishes of flexibility and the social protection of the worker. ( Dike Law Books) [ Swiss Law, Employment Law, Labor Law, Social Security Law]

150 pages, Paperback

Published November 2, 2014