2023

DOI:https://www.doi.org/10.31178/AUBD/2023.04

Abstract:The evolution of Romanian labor law has been shaped by the economic and social dynamics that have characterized the transformation of how the Romanian state functions and is governed. This study aims to demonstrate how: (i) through the way it operates, technology compels us to adapt legislation to the reality around us, to redefine and correctly identify the parties to the employment contract (the employer in the case of digital platforms, the legal status of the worker situated at the boundary between employee and independent contractor), new atypical forms of work organization, the workplace (in the case of telework), and, above all, the feature that distinguishes the employment relationship—namely subordination—from other types of contracts, in this case, those for the provision of services (civil and commercial); (ii) the current conditions under which work is performed have radically altered the relationship between place and work—namely the workplace—and that between work and working time—namely the work schedule—and open at least two paths in the evolution of the employment relationship: one in which individual responsibility and freedom prevail through a focus on the situation of “self-employment” (self-employment/independent worker), and another that emphasizes the social component, where the central role is played by “professional status,” which includes “portable rights” and what lies “beyond employment and the market”: periods of professional training, learning, volunteer work, etc.

The conclusion that emerges is that while some of its provisions—which pertain to the negotiation of individual and collective labor agreements, employment status, and the rights and obligations of the social partners—fall under private law, while another part, which regulates the organization of social partners, the resolution of collective labor disputes, as well as those concerning the general and special protection of women, young people, and other categories of persons, consists of public law provisions, labor law justifies and guarantees its autonomy as a branch of law, both in relation to constitutional law and, above all, in relation to civil law.

Keywords: labor law, social security law, civil law, public law, individual employment contract, collective bargaining agreement.