Development of Relationships in the Sphere of Use of Personal Labor. Labor and Civil Relationships and Contracts

In this paper the comprehensive analysis of relations and contracts in the sphere of the use of personal labor has been carried out, taking into account the current trends in their development. The main problems associated with the confusion of civil and labor legal relations and the substitution of civil contracts for labor were identified. Also ways of resolving them from theoretical and practical positions were proposed. A distinctive feature of modern society is the emergence and development of new forms of employment that provide the parties with the flexibility to regulate relations on the use of personal labor and respond to public demands and changes in the socioeconomic sphere. However, having given the parties the freedom to choose the terms of employment and the forms of its contractual regulation, new forms of employment have gone beyond the scope of the labor law, depriving the workers of even minimal labor rights and guarantees. The absence of labor guarantees is not in the interests of the worker and may result from the abuse of the employer's rights. To combat informal employment and employer’s bad faith we have formulated proposals for amending to the Labour Code and Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. In particular, it is proposed to enshrine in law additional signs of labor relations, establish a presumption of the existence of an employment relationship when the enforcement authority discovers several of its characteristics, and also specify the procedure for recognizing relations that arose on the basis of a civil contract by labor relations by the contractor and the court. Prior to making appropriate legislative changes, it is proposed that the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation develops a Resolution of the Plenum, where clear recommendations would be given to courts considering disputes over the legal nature of the existing relations on the use of personal labor.