Correlation of Labor and Civil Contracts Related to the Performance of Work: Preventing the Substitution of Concepts

Legal relations arising from a civil law contract for the performance of work or the provision of services are not identical to labor relations, and the conclusion of a civil law contracts of such a type does not indicate the existence of an employment relationship between the customer and the contractor. Studies of recent years indicate that an employer and an employee do not always realize the legal consequences that the conclusion of such an agreement entails. The question of whether legislators can properly identify this factor as a problem and how they may counter this issue underlies current study. The research analyzes the legal basis of various states concerning the interconnection of labor relations and those that arise as a result of a civil contract conclusion. Using the method of functional comparison, the work considers the approaches of various states in matters of legislative differentiation of labor and civil law contracts. The results of this study indicate that the problem of hidden labor relations is characteristic of many countries. The study confirms the existence of the problem of substitution of the concepts of labor and civil contracts related to the performance of work. At the same time, the study gives reasons to make suggestion about the high degree of involvement of policymakers in countering this phenomenon at the level of legislative regulation. The results of this study can be used to develop tools for combating hidden labor relations by the subjects of legislative initiatives in different countries.