Is a New Employment Contract Needed?

Abstract

The article is devoted to the topic of the “new labor contract”, which has recently appeared in the discussions of scientists and experts. The existing configuration of labor relations is heterogeneous and contradictory. There are zones where legal, prescribed by law relations prevail. There is an informal sector where employers make their own rules, and there are labor relations with lower standards reserved for “second class” workers such as migrants. Finally, the digital sector is actively developing, where “pseudo-labor relations” are being formed. All this pushes to search for new ways of development and to try to determine the parameters of the so-called “new labor contract”. Most often, the idea of liberalizing labor legislation and freeing businesses from “excessive restrictions” that increase labor costs is considered as such. The article cites a number of facts showing that the flip side of liberalization is a high level of conflict, turning into protests. At the same time, the practices of resolving conflicts in the labor sphere are mainly reduced to suppressing the dissatisfaction of workers or ignoring their position.Another option, which is actively developing in large corporations, is the use of paternalistic strategies, which, although they look humane, are aimed only at supporting behaviors that are beneficial to companies. Their peculiarity is that they exclude the possibility of employees to defend interests that do not coincide with those supported by business.