The Termination and Transformation of Employment Contracts

Abstract

This chapter completes the analysis of the legal construction of employment relations as contracts by concentrating on the termination of employment contracts and on the principal transformations which they may undergo. It begins by showing how, in English law, there are two distinct systems of legal regulation of the termination of employment — one contractual and the other extra-contractual — which co-exist in a state of separation but inter-dependency. The next section of the chapter explores the ways in which European legal systems shape the duration and termination of employment contracts, particularly by reference to the conceptual and regulatory affinities between ‘fixed-term’ and ‘open ended’ contractual arrangements. The chapter then pursues further the idea of dis-integrated regulation of the termination of employment, taking English law as the extreme case of such duality. Finally, the concluding section articulates a composite notion of the transformations which may take place in employment contracts, focusing on how employment contracts may be transferred between employing entities.