LEGAL STATUS OF WORKERS UNDER DECREE OF THE PRESIDENT OF REPUBLIC OF POLAND ON THE EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT 1928

The study was devoted to the regulations contained in one of the first Polish regulations aimed at standardizing the employment of a specific group of employees. On the basis of the conducted analysis, it was possible to indicate the specificity related to the legal status of workers employed on the basis of an employment contract.

PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION IN THE EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT

This text is devoted to the protection of personal data in the employment relationship. The starting point for this analysis were the provisions resulting from the Polish Constitution, namely Art. 30. We discussed the conditions of personal data protection in labor law, focusing in particular on Art. 221 of the Labor Code and all related regulations. We have tried to explain what the processing of personal data is, and what are the correlations in employment relationships. In our opinion, the protection of personal data itself is not only the necessity of cooperation between the employee and the employer to the extent specified by law, but also based on ethical values. Hence the employer’s obligation to avoid actions that directly interfere with the employee’s protected personal belongings

COOPERATIVE EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT AS THE BASIS FOR ESTABLISHING AN EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP

The subject of the foregoing study is the characteristics of the cooperative employment contract, which is the basic form of employment of worker cooperatives members, and, in principle, is used only there. The legislator requires that, in addition to the cases laid down in the provisions of the Cooperative Law, the cooperative member is employed for the entire duration of the membership on the basis of a cooperative employment contract, which has a significant impact on the way in which the contract is concluded and its content. Pursuant to Article 182 of Cooperative Law, as soon as a person joins a worker cooperative, both the cooperative and its member are obliged to enter into and remain in a cooperative employment relationship with each other. Importantly, if the employment relationship is not established through the fault of the cooperative, the member may claim, for the entire duration of the membership, the conclusion of a cooperative employment contract, and apart from that, he may, within one year from the date of becoming a member, claim compensation under the provisions of civil law. These claims are subject to the cognition of the labour court.

THE FREEDOM OF CONTRACT AND ADDITIONAL CONTRACTS OF THE PARTIES TO THE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP

The issue of freedom of contract in the individual labour law is discussed in this text taking into account the additional conctracts, concluded by the employer and the employee in addition to the primary contract (i.e. employment contract). The scope of freedom of contract which is construed in the relation to the additional contracts shows deviations from the basic model. The main difference is the recognition of the rule of numerus apertus (as opposed to numerus clausus rule) of additional conctracts. The specifity of additional contracts extends the freedom of parties of an employment relationship to form the content of that legal relationship. This, however, does not prejudge a question of a regulatory model of the above-mentioned freedom.

TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT OF TEACHERS

The employment of teachers is stable. The preferred legal form of performing work is an employment relationship for an indefinite period. Employment under a fixed-term employment contract is exceptionally permissible. The Teacher’s Charter identifies four such situations. This does not mean that temporary employment may last for many years. The legislator introduced special mechanisms limiting the duration of these contracts. Exceeding the limit indicated in the act results in the transformation by operation of law into an unlimited employment relationship. Also, unlawful entrustment of work for a specified period of time will result in the transformation of the employment relationship into an indefinite period.

THE ESSENCE OF A FIXED-TERM EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT

The existing regulation of the Labor Code includes three types of employment contracts. It means that each of them may be concluded only in certain circumstances. The differences between them result from their different functions and purposes. The shape of the regulation of each contract should reflect its nature. The essence of a fixed-term employment contract is shaped by three structural elements: the temporary nature of the work to be performed, unconditional determination of the end of the employment contract, and stability of the contract. The purpose of this article is to characterize each of these elements and assess the compliance of the existing LC regulation with the nature of the contract in question.

TERMINATION OF THE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP OF AN ACADEMIC TEACHER

The subject of the article is an analysis of changes in the procedure in which the termination and expiry of the employment relationship of academic teachers takes place on the basis of the Act on Higher Education and the Act on Higher Education and Science replacing this act. On the basis of the repealed act the employment relationship with academic teachers was established on the basis of an appointment or an employment contract. Depending on the basis for establishing the employment relationship, the issues of the possibility of terminating the employment relationship with an academic teacher were also different. The result of the introduction of new regulations on termination of the employment relationship of an academic teacher is the equalization of the situation of appointed and contract teachers in this respect, and thus weakening the protection against termination of employment of appointed teachers.

Wybór prawa dla umowy o pracę. Glosa do wyroku Trybunału Sprawiedliwości Unii Europejskiej z dnia 15 lipca 2021 r. w sprawach połączonych DG, EH c/a SC Gruber Logistics SRL (C-152/20) oraz Sindicatul Lucrătorilor din Transporturi, TD c/a SC Samidani Trans

This paper comments on a recent ruling concerning the choice of law to the individual employment contract according to the Rome I Regulation. In the judgement in the joined cases C–152/20 and C–218/20 (DG, EH v. SC Gruber Logistics SRL and Sindicatul Lucrătorilor din Transporturi, TD v. SC Samidani Trans SRL), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) provided the interpretation of Article 8 of the Rome I Regulation on two issues. At first, the EU Court was asked about the freedom of choice of law applicable to the individual employment contract if (a) national law required the inclusion of a clause into that contract under which the contractual provisions are supplemented by national law and (b) the contractual clause concerning that choice was drafted by the employer. The second issue was connected with the concept of the employee’s protection, under which the choice of law may not have the result of depriving the employee of the protection afforded to him (her) by provisions that cannot be derogated from by agreement, under the law that would have been applicable to the contract in the absence of choice. Regarding the first question, the CJEU admitted that the parties to an individual employment contract dispose of freedom to choose the law applicable to that contract, even if the contractual provisions are supplemented by national labour law under a (relevant) national provision, if “the national provision in question does not require the parties to choose national law as the law applicable to that contract”. Secondly, the Court found that the parties to an individual employment contract were “to be regarded as being, in principle, free to choose the law applicable to that contract, even if the contractual clause concerning that choice is drafted by the employer”. Therefore, the CJEU confirmed the application of the rules concerning the choice of law resulting from Article 3 of the Rome I Regulation to the individual employment contracts. Referring to the second issue of the commented ruling, the CJEU confirmed that Article 8 (1) of the Rome I Regulation must be interpreted as meaning that, where the parties have chosen the law governing the individual employment contract, the application of the law that would apply to the contract in the absence of choice must be excluded, with the exception of “provisions that cannot be derogated from by agreement”, if those provisions offer the employee concerned greater protection than those of the law chosen by the parties. The EU Court underlined that rules on the minimum wage could be treated as “provisions that cannot be derogated from by agreement” and the law that, in the absence of choice, would be applicable should decide about it. Unfortunately, it is necessary to follow the commented judgment’s justification to correctly understand the concept of an employee’s protection applied in Article 8 (1) of the Rome I Regulation. The thesis of the ruling in this regard seems to be too laconic, and it can be misinterpreted.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the New Edition of Chapter 49.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation

The paper analyzes the novels of Ch. 49.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation introduced on January 1, 2021. It highlights advantages and disadvantages of new approaches of the legislator to the regulation of remote work, describes preliminary results regarding the application of new rules. The merits of the new edition of Ch. 49.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation include the emergence of the opportunity to combine work “in the office” with a remote work in accordance with the employment contract, the cancellation of Article 312.5 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation that contains the right to establish additional grounds for terminating an employment contract with a remote worker, and the simplification of the procedure for signing an employment contract and other documents required for registration of employment of a remote worker. As shortcomings, the author enumerates the absence in the new edition of Ch. 49.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation of norms concerning the peculiarities of implementation by teleworkers of the right to join trade unions to protect their rights, the peculiarities of investigating an industrial accident or occupational disease of a teleworker, the absence of norms on the “right to be offline” beyond working hours for a teleworker, imperfection of the legal technique associated with the introduction into the legal field of two new grounds for terminating an employment contract with a remote worker. The author predicts possible violations of the newly introduced provision on the wages preservation in full when the employee performs his labor function remotely, which is linked to the incentive payments in the wage structure, awarding which is considered as a right, rather than an obligation of the employer. Among the disadvantages the paper names the lack of conflict-of-laws rules in the case of remote work carried out by both foreign workers and citizens of the Russian Federation outside its borders. In general, the author gives positive assessment of amendments introduced in Ch. 49.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, as expanding the possibilities of the parties to the employment contract for a more active application of the rules on distance work. The shortcomings noted in the paper should be regarded as material for theoretical comprehension and discussion with the aim of further improvement of the legal regulation of remote workers’ labor.

Labour Law Reforming at Qatar: comparative research

Paper proposed highlights the experience of Qatar's labor law reform, its features, peculiarities of the countries of the Muslim Legal family taking into account. Mainly directions of aforesaid reform and structural improvements in the legal regulation of Labor Relations in comparison with the pre-reform period are determined. A comparative study with the relevant directions of industry reform in Ukraine was conducted. Similar and distinctive features, advantages and disadvantages of both systems are analyzed. Conclusions about the possibility of borrowing positive foreign experience into the domestic labor and legal reality were showed. Studying of Labor Relations legal regulation experience in the Middle East on the example of Qatar permit to encourage colleagues to put out a scientific discussion about such types of employment contract as educational and service ones, its core conditions, consider the proposals of the trade union movement within the framework of joint committees, outline the problems of sponsorship law and repatriation in connection with subject of Labor Law, discuss problems and apply positive experience in regulating the work of home-based workers, consider the possibility of introducing the institute of anonymous complaints in labor law, pay attention to the experience of creation a labor justice system. Special attention should be paid to a physical attack on the employer or direct supervisor as reasons for termination of the employment contract at the initiative of the employer. Simultaneously, Domestic system of labor law, although it is distinguished by more long-timed traditions of statutory guarantees in field of Labor and Social Security Law, is not without the need to borrow foreign experience in order to update it for the needs of modern social development, which should be devoted to furthermore comparative legal researches.