On the Issue of the Sectoral Nature of the Employment Contract (In Memory of Professor V.M. Lebedev)

Abstract

The relevance of the study is due to the need to implement independent legal regulation of social and labor relations by the norms of labor law, taking into account the modern paradigm of labor law, in particular the features of the technological process in specific organizations. The independence of the employment contract and labor law is affirmed. It is noted that the inclusion of an employment contract among civil contracts does not contribute to the development of industrial relations and does not correspond to the rights and interests of workers. It is noted that the regulation of labor relations by sources of civil legislation cannot take into account either the specifics of the activities of certain organizations, or the rights and interests of individual workers. It is concluded that the employment contract can be considered a unique source of labor law, since it is valid only in the relationship between the employee and the employer. It is noted that the relationship between an employee and an employer is not a relationship between two legally equal entities, the obligation of one of which is the obligation to make efforts (the obligation to work, following the instructions of the employer), and the obligation of the second is to pay money for the efforts made. This is not a private law relationship. It involves the power and subordination that characterize public relations. It is indicated that labor legislation does not properly regulate issues of the conditions for the validity of labor transactions and the legal consequences of their invalidity. Attention is drawn to the fact that the discussion itself about the sectoral affiliation of the employment contract should, first of all, have practical significance. It is argued that the need for subsidiary application of civil law to labor relations does not determine the absorption of labor law by civil law. This only presents the mechanism of “legal economy” that the legislator uses.