Concise exam summary labour law (Contract law II) second half

Table of Contents
Week 6 – labour law introduction...................................................................................................................................................................1
QUESTIONS........................................................................................................................................................................................................................9
Week 7: Labour law part II............................................................................................................................................................................12
Issues:..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................15
QUESTIONS......................................................................................................................................................................................................................16
Week 8 – interventions regarding gig work and atypical relationships – collective bargaining power for self-employed people....................22
QUESTIONS......................................................................................................................................................................................................................29
Week 9 – Guest lecture Canadian Labour law................................................................................................................................................32
QUESTIONS......................................................................................................................................................................................................................38
Week 10 – labour law enforcement challenges with a focus on the role of courts..........................................................................................41
QUESTIONS......................................................................................................................................................................................................................46
Mock exam...................................................................................................................................................................................................49




Week 6 – labour law introduction

general awareness and basic Regulatory instruments of labour law
understanding of the regulatory

,instruments of labour law
specific knowledge of how the - Increase of quasi self-employed persons/ Gig workers (e.g., uber drivers)
countervailing function of - Tom Goodwin (2015): Uber, Facebook, Alibaba and Airbnb all do not own what they operate with, e.g., no vehicles, no
labour law is challenged by new content, no inventory and no real estate  hence the dynamics of who owns equipment, concrete dependency and
forms of employment in the control over the work are shifted
platform economy - Click-wrap agreements: Binding guidelines which define a completely autonomous legal system (e.g., from Uber 
driver can only click on “I accept” – limited freedom of contract)
Bernd Waas (2010), "The Legal file:///Users/anouk/Downloads/Waas,%20The%20legal%20definition%20of%20the%20employment%20relationship.pdf
definition of the employment
relationship", European Labour Characteristics of quasi-workers are essentially set out in section 12a of the Act on Collective Bargaining Agreements
Law Journal 2010, Vol. 1(1), 45- (Tarifvertragsgesetz) (Bernd Waas, page 55)
55. (on Canvas) 1. Economic dependency (as opposed to personal dependency or subordination);
2. Second, the need for social protection; because of,
3. Third, work performed personally without the aid of subordinate employees and because,
4. Fourth, either work is done mainly for one person or the worker relies on one single entity for more than half of
his/her total income.
Antonio Aloisi (2015),
"Commoditized workers. The
Rising of On-Demand Work, a
Case Study Research on a Set of
Online Platforms and Apps",
January 2015, SSRN Electronic

, Journal /ssrn.2637485




Criteria for an employment contract:


- Two people engaged in a work relationship (contractual agreement)
- One party (employee) commits to the performance of work
- Under subordination of the other party (employer)
 Subordination: Whenever one party of the contractual relationship has the right to provide directives and execute control over the
performance of the work  Employer has duty to protect the employee as well as do assume risk of low performance
- In exchange for a pay (salary)


General criteria to assess if someone is an employee or an independent contractor
1. The work needs to be performed personally;
2. the (im)possibility of having control over one’s own work;
3. the freedom (or not) of managing one’s own time schedule;
4. the way in which tasks are performed;
5. the concrete dependency;
6. the permanency of the relationship;
7. the number of working hours;
8. the ownership of equipment;

, 9. the method of payment (hours vs project).




Employee OR independent contractor:


Why is the distinction workers who are not classified as employee cannot (fully) benefit from the ‘labour law paradise’• Protection vs dismissals • Working time •
important Health and safety • Maternity/paternity leave • Annual leave • Sick leave • Minimum wages (Bernd Waas, page 46)