Trap of the Past: Why Economically Dependent Work is Not Regulated in the Member States of Eastern Europe

Abstract

The regulation of economically dependent work is a relatively new phenomenon and is present only in some ‘old’ Member States. At the same time, the ‘new’ Member States of Eastern Europe still lag behind the old Member States in this respect, both in terms of employment regulation and labour law literature. The main reason behind the lack of developments as regards the definitional system in the Labour Codes of the ‘new’ Member States is the wilful adherence to the traditional binary system, consisting of employment contracts and civil law contracts. The binary system of employment and civil law relationships has a long history, thus, the legal profession still thinks strongly in terms of this binary system, not even considering the possibility of regulating the third type of work relationship. Thus, detailed regulation of economically dependent work and the expansion of the scope of labour law still awaits.