Course purpose

• The main purpose of this course is to provide students with knowledge and understanding of the extent and complexity of employment law and basic principles and doctrines in the area of labour law. Students will learn about the integrity of the legal position, rights and obligations of the employee and the employer. The emphasis is on individual working relationships, collective labour relations are given only in the basic outlines. The purpose of the course is also that students understand the connection between the legal subsystem of labour law with other legal subsystems, notably corporate law and contract law.

Content (Syllabus outline)

• The historical and cultural basis of labour law, its dimensions and the relation of this legal subsystem to other legal subsystems. The interdisciplinary aspects of employment relations and the link between labour law and social security law as well as human resource management and industrial relations.
• The origins and the development of labour law. The constitutional and international basis of labour law with emphasis on European law.
• The legal regulation of the individual employment relations. Employment contract and the comparison with other (civil law) contracts ((author's contract, contractual agreement, student work, business cooperation agreement, etc.).
• The specifics of employment contracts (fixed-term employment contract, contract for the provision of workers to another user, contract for the provision of public works, part-time employment contract, home contract, contract with managers).
• Rights, obligations and responsibilities in labour relationship: duty to perform/securing work; duty to inform; safe working conditions, protection of the worker's personality; wages and other incomes, working hours, night work, breaks and rests; annual leave and other absence from work; obligation to perform another work; protection of certain categories of workers.
• Violations of rights and obligations arising from an employment relationship. Disciplinary liability and liability for damages. Enforcement and protection of rights, obligations and responsibilities from employment relationship. Termination of the employment contract and stipulating new contract due to changed circumstances.
• The regulation of collective labour relations: trade unions, the right to strike. Collective bargaining and conclusion of collective agreements, the importance of collective agreements. Employees’ participation.
• Digitalisation of labour law: the impact of technology on the future of labour law and new forms of work.